When All Hope's Lost
by bklue18
Summary: She wakes up from a coma after a year only to find the world she knew to have changed. With a portion of her memory missing, she seeks to find the truth while falling in love with the man who saved her.
1. Long Lost Reunion

She woke up all of a sudden in her own room, feeling the stickiness of her body due to the sweat. Looking around her room, she realized that it looked way more run down than the way she remembered. As she tried to move her head, she started to feel the numbness starting to hit her nerves. She tried as hard as she could to lift her left hand to get her iPhone but instead, while trying to reach for it, her hand lost strength and her fingers swiped her phone off the nightstand. The iPhone landed on the ground with a loud thud.

"Phil, did you hear that?"  
"I heard it."  
"Do you think it's one of them?"

Not taking a second to answer his friend, he held up his gun in front of him as he ascended the stairs slowly with his friend behind him. Together, they checked the rooms that had their doors wide open before noticing a door that had been boarded up. Phil signaled for his friend to help take off the boards before they opened the door. They noticed the figure on the bed in a sleeping position.

"H-Hello?"

His friend looked at Phil, wondering if he too heard the female voice. The two of them moved closer with their weapons in front of them as precaution. As his friend approached the bed, they could finally see the face of the figure.

"Are you okay? My name's Bryan Danielson. Can you move?"

She shook her head and said, "I'm fine but… I-I can't seem to move."

Bryan looked at Phil as he looked out of the window. Seeing the sky slowly turning dark, indicated that night was only a few hours away. He handed Bryan his gun and pulled the covers off her. He scooped her off the bed bridal-style and turned to Bryan.

"Get her glasses on the night-stand. We have to go now." Phil said

Bryan nodded and instantly spotted her glasses on the night stand. He picked it up and followed after Phil who was carrying her down the stairs. Bryan picked the bag of food they had gotten from her kitchen off the ground.

Phil looked at her, "Keep your eyes on me. Don't look anywhere else, got it?"

She nodded and Phil looked up as Bryan opened the front door for them. They made their way to the car they brought with them and Bryan put the bag of food in the backseat. He moved aside as Phil put Jasmine into the back of the car, lying down and closed the door. The two of them quickly got into the front seats of the car before starting up the engine.

Through the car mirror, Phil maintained eye contact with her.

"Don't sit up until I tell you to, okay?" Phil said

She nodded and closed her eyes as she felt the car move off from its original spot. As they drove out of the surburbs towards the mountainous area, she knew somehow or another that something had happened to the world she once knew. But, she didn't know how bad it was.

Once the coast was clear, Bryan turned back to see if she was alright.

"Hey, are you okay?" Bryan asked  
"Y-Yeah…" She replied  
"You're Jasmine, right?" Bryan said  
"How-How did you know?" She asked

Bryan merely smiled before turning back to see Phil shift into parking gear as they arrived at their destination.

"You can sit up now." Bryan said, before getting out of the car.

Jasmine sat up and looked at her left to see a rather decent looking camp ground that had been set up with other tents. People were milling around, doing their own things like nothing had happened. Only, Jasmine noticed that most of them looked like they haven't bathe in ages. Feeling the strength come back to her limbs, she opened the door and slowly stepped out of her car.

"Jasmine?"

She looked ahead of her and saw a boy of about 10 years old looking longingly at her. Tears started to cloud her vision as the boy ran towards her and engulfed her in a hug.

"I knew they would bring you back! I just knew it!" The boy said

Jasmine hugged him tight as she kissed the top of her little brother's head. He broke the hug and looked at her before breaking into a tired but happy smile.

"I missed you so much!" He said

Jasmine smiled, "I missed you too, Bradley."

Her little brother hugged her one more time before pulling her by her hand towards the camp, where everyone had stopped to look at the two of them. Bradley brought her towards a tent where a pretty looking black lady was standing, arranging her clothes out to dry.

"Alicia! They brought back my sister!" Bradley exclaimed

She turned around and smiled, "That's wonderful news! I told you they'd find her, right?"

Bradley nodded and smiled before looking at Jasmine, "I'll go get some water for you."

Before Jasmine could say anything, Bradley ran off towards an RV parked near the other cars. Alicia looked at her and pulled her over to the chairs where they both sat down.

"I'm Alicia. I've been taking care of your little brother ever since he was brought here." She said

Jasmine smiled, "My name's Jasmine."

She looked at Alicia, "What do you mean by when he was brought here? Where are my parents?"

Alicia sat back, her face registering a look of guilt, as if she had said something wrong.

"Alicia… Is there something I should know? What is going on?" Jasmine asked

Seeing Jasmine's look of lost and a possibility of an oncoming breakdown, Alicia felt compelled to tell her everything.

She sighed, "It's a disease that came out of nowhere. People who died from the disease started coming back alive and biting other humans. It became an unstoppable cycle. It began in Miami and it started to spread across the entire country. Phil found your brother, hiding under a blanket in your parents' car. They were nowhere to be seen so he brought Bradley here."

Jasmine sat back, feeling as if someone just threw a stone at her and she was suffering a major concussion. She tried to register what Alicia just told her but no matter how hard she tried; she just couldn't understand why she wasn't in the picture.

"What about me? Why wasn't I with them? Why did Bryan and Phil find me in the house?" Jasmine asked, wanting her questions to be answered.

Alicia made a sympathetic face and said, "You've been in a coma for over a year. Your parents had to leave with your little brother because they thought you were never going to wake up. When Phil brought Bradley here, he kept saying that he wanted to see you. He kept calling out your name in his sleep. He always believed that you would wake up and that you were still alive… That's why Phil promised Bradley that he will go to your house to find you and get some more food at the same time."

"How long ago did this happen?" Jasmine asked

"This shit happened a little over two months ago. Phil brought Bradley back two weeks ago… He hadn't been sleeping well ever since he came here but now that they've found you and reunited the two of you, I expect him to sleep well now." Alicia replied

Jasmine merely nodded and decided to stop asking questions as Bradley came running back to her with a bottle of water in hand. He handed it to her and she downed the whole bottle as soon as it touched her lips.

Alicia clapped her hands together as she stood up and said, "Well, I should start getting packed up to move out of the tent now…"

"Move out? Why?" Jasmine asked  
"I expect the two of you to be living together so I'll move to another tent." Alicia replied  
"It's okay… You can stay. I'll just share the bed with my brother." Jasmine said  
"Yeah. You don't have to move out." Bradley said

Alicia looked at the both of them and smiled, "Alright then. I'll stay."

"So you're not moving to my tent already?"

They turned and a woman came into their view with a smile.

"Hi, I'm Tamina."

Jasmine smiled and shook her hand, "Jasmine."

"Sorry, Tamina. I'm staying." Alicia said  
"Well, that's good news for me. I have the tent to myself again." Tamina said

She looked at Jasmine and said, "Anyway, I'm here to check on you. I'm a medical student and I know a few things about comatose patients. I think I should give you a check-up just to be sure you're okay."

Jasmine nodded and Tamina walked her over to her tent. They sat down inside and Tamina took a small torch light that they used in hospitals to check her eyes. After a few checks here and there, she was done.

"Everything looks fine. You're good as new." Tamina said  
"Thanks…" Jasmine said

Tamina smiled, "No problem. It's a relief that you're here now and back with Bradley. When Bradley came here, he was so fearful. Alicia and I had a hard time getting him to eat."

"Thank you for taking care of him. I really don't know how he must have felt when our parents didn't come back for him…" Jasmine said  
"Well, all that matters is you're here now." Tamina said

Jasmine nodded as she thanked Tamina again before heading out of her tent. She was on her way back to her new home when a Hispanic woman came up to her, holding a set of clothes.

"Hola! Are you Jasmine?" She asked  
"Yes I am… You are?" Jasmine said

She smiled, "Rosa Mendes. Phil asked me to find you a new set of clothes. And I managed to find a set. So, here you are."

Rosa handed the set of clothes to Jasmine which had a 'I heart NY' shirt and a pair of jeans.

"Thank you." Jasmine said  
"De nada." Rosa replied

She smiled at Jasmine again before she walked off towards what Jasmine assumed was her tent that she shared with another girl.


	2. Welcome To The New World

After Jasmine changed into the new outfit at her tent, she decided to go find Phil to thank him for helping his little brother and her. After getting instructions from Rosa, she headed towards the trail at the back of the camps, leading down to a lake where she found him sitting there, throwing pebbles across the lake.

"Hey." Jasmine greeted

Phil looked up and said, "Hey… Nice to see that you're well and walking."

"Yeah… About that… Thanks for promising my little brother you'd find me…" Jasmine said  
"Nah… It was nothing. We had to go get some more food so raiding your kitchen was an added bonus." Phil said  
"Right… But it was a long shot. I mean, I could have died already." Jasmine said  
"True. But you're not. So, let's leave it at that." Phil said

Jasmine nodded and sat down next to Phil.

"Look… I'm still really hazy about why there are so many people camping up here on a mountain and I have no idea what this disease is all about… But, since you saved me and reunited me with my brother… I can't just stay here and do nothing. I see everyone has a sort of duty around here and you seem like the leader here so... assign me something to do." Jasmine said

Phil looked at her to see if she was actually kidding but she had a determined look which made Phil laugh slightly.

"First of all, I'm not the leader here. Secondly, I'm just in-charge of getting the food back here. Thirdly, people living here aren't assigned duties. It's just a way of living in a community. They get bored and just find something to do." Phil said  
"Okay… Fine… Is there any job available?" Jasmine asked  
"Do I look like a job search engine to you?" Phil said

Annoyed with Phil's response, Jasmine stood up and just walked away. Feeling bad that he kinda gave her attitude, Phil got up to go after her. Jasmine was walking up the trail back to the camps when he caught up with her.

"Hey, Jasmine… I'm sorry. Ever since this nightmare started, I haven't been able to sharpen my people skills." Phil said

Jasmine looked at Phil and seeing that he genuinely meant what he said, she shook her head.

"That's okay. We all have those moments." Jasmine said

As Phil was about to speak, the two of them heard a branch break in the forest on their left. They turned to look but couldn't see anything. Jasmine shrugged it off, thinking it was an animal and looked at Phil, expecting him to have the same reaction. Instead, she sees his eyebrows furrowed together and he was staring intensely into the forest.

Phil turned to Jasmine, "Go on ahead without me."

Not bothering to wait for her response, he walked into the forest. Jasmine looked at Phil as he ventured into the forest and followed after him. All her life, she wasn't one to listen to orders and she sure wasn't going to start now. Hearing footsteps behind him, Phil turned around to see Jasmine tracing his footsteps.

"I thought I told you to go on ahead without me?" Phil said  
"You're not the boss of me. I go where I want." Jasmine said

She was about to go ahead of him when he held onto her wrist.

"I am serious, Jasmine. Go back to the camps. You do not want to see this." Phil said  
"See what?" Jasmine asked

Phil didn't manage to answer her as he pulled her close to him and covered her mouth, seeking cover behind a tree. Jasmine tried to protest against Phil's actions but he looked at her with such a serious expression that she instantly felt herself keep silent.

"I'm going to let you go but don't make a sound and don't move." Phil whispered

Jasmine nodded as Phil slowly removed his hand that was covering her mouth. He signaled for her to follow him and she did. Phil looked down at the newly disturbed soil and followed after it until he spotted what he was expecting to see.

A human was leant over a dead deer and pulling out its insides as he stuffed it into his mouth. Jasmine's hands instantly covered her own mouth to prevent herself from screaming upon seeing that the human wasn't a human after all. His rotting flesh could only tell her that this was what the disease had made. The walking dead. Phil turned to look at her and put a finger to his lips to ask her to stay quiet as he whipped out a machete that he kept by his side, hanging from his jeans loop.

"HEY." Phil said out loud

The rotting human stopped what he was doing and turned around to give Jasmine a full view of how he really looked like. She stepped back in horror as the rotting human lunge forward, his hands fully extended, ready to grab Phil and eat him. Before he could get his hands on Phil, he stopped short with Phil's machete splitting his head open. Jasmine blinked away the tears that had started to well up in her eyes due to this first-hand horrifying experience she was having. Phil stepped back as the rotting human fell to its knees. Phil stepped closer to it and proceeded to deliver close to 10 more blows consecutively to its head. Feeling that he had done enough, he removed his machete from his head and stepped back, examining his work.

He turned around to look at Jasmine, "I told you that this wasn't something you would want to see."

"What-What is that?" Jasmine exclaimed, not being able to process what just happened.

Phil looked at the corpse, "That… Is a dead man walking or what we call… Walkers."

"Wha-How did they turn into that? Aren't they humans?" Jasmine asked  
"They were humans once… But now, they're just nothing but the walking dead. They feed on human flesh to survive. So, if you see one and you don't kill them… They might just kill you. And, you'd turn out like that." Phil replied

Jasmine shook her head as her knees suddenly gave way and she landed on the ground with a thud. Startled, Phil quickly kept his machete back in its cover before walking over to her. She stared blankly at the ground as Phil reached out to touch her.

"Hey, are you okay?" Phil asked

Jasmine heard Phil but she couldn't find her voice to reply him. What is going on? What the heck happened to the world she knew? Is everyone like that? How did this happen? These were the questions that were popping up in her brain and absorbing all of her concentration. Phil asked if she was okay 2 more times but she blocked him out as she continued to sink deeper into the whirlpool of unanswered questions.

Seeing that Jasmine was in a daze, Phil was worried she had gone into shock. So, he picked her up bridal-style as he made the way back to camp for the both of them.

The first place he went to was Tamina's tent. Not even bothering to call out to Tamina to let her know he's at her tent, Phil barged in and placed the still dazed Jasmine on Tamina's bed. Hearing the intrusion, Tamina stood up from her desk and turned to see the two of them. She instantly spotted Jasmine who was in such a dazed state, Tamina rushed over to her.

"What happened?" Tamina asked Phil  
"We encountered a walker." Phil replied  
"And?" Tamina said  
"I ended its so-called life in front of her." Phil said

Tamina sighed and said, "Did it ever occur to you that not everyone can take in that scene? Especially when she has been out for the past year and doesn't even know what walkers are?"

"Look, I told her to come back to camp while I finish off that bastard by myself but she followed me." Phil said

Tamina shook her head as she checked Jasmine's pupils and breathing.

"So? How is she?" Phil asked  
"Her breathing is normal and her pupils aren't dilated. She's fine." Tamina replied  
"Then why is she in a daze?" Phil said, pointing at the blank look she was giving.  
"I think she's processing what just happened before her eyes. Jasmine's been in a coma for a year and she only woke up today. How is she able to process immediately what we went through for the past 2 months?" Tamina said

Tamina felt Jasmine's forehead to make sure she wasn't going to get a fever all of a sudden, since she just got out of a coma and may be susceptible to falling sick easily.

She turned to Phil and said, "She'll be fine after a while. Bring her back to her tent and let her rest. After she's come to terms with what's going on, she'll become herself again."

Not wanting to question Tamina's instructions, Phil carried Jasmine back up again and brought her back to her tent. As soon as Alicia and Bradley spotted Jasmine being carried back by Phil, they rushed over to him and escorted him into the tent. He put Jasmine down on the chair as Alicia looked at Jasmine.

"What happened to her?" Alicia asked, worried.  
"She and I encountered a walker." Phil replied

Hearing that was enough for Alicia to come up with an answer to a question.

Alicia looked at Bradley, "Look after your sister, okay?"

Bradley nodded as he sat down next to Jasmine. Alicia looked at Phil and signaled for him to follow after her as they headed to the outside of the tent.

"She saw you kill the walker?" Alicia asked  
"Yeah. I think that kinda shocked her." Phil replied

Alicia sighed, "Seriously, Phil… Maybe fill her in properly next time before you go off killing walkers."

"I tried to ask her to go back to camp without me but she followed me instead. How is it my fault?" Phil said

Alicia knew that Phil had the smartest mouth among all of them. So, she gave in to him, knowing she wouldn't be able to out talk him and merely shook her head as he gave her the most innocent look he could muster.


	3. Putting Skills To Good Use

Meanwhile, back inside the tent, Bradley lightly touched Jasmine's arm and almost immediately, Jasmine snapped out of her self-induced daze.

"Jasmine? Are you okay?" Bradley asked

She looked at her little brother's worried face and nodded, "I am now."

Bradley heaved a sigh of relief before wrapping his arms around his sister. Knowing what kind of danger they are facing, Jasmine knew she couldn't deny that this was the situation they'd have to live with until the day they die. She hugged her little brother tight; knowing that she is solely responsible for him and she was going to do all she can to keep him safe.

* * *

The next morning, after breakfast, Jasmine brought Bradley to the lake to spend some time with him. They sat by the lake with their legs in the water and she started to splash him with some of the water from the lake, which got a laugh out of him.

"Can I join you?"

The two of them turned around to see a little girl with blonde hair, looking at them hopefully, waiting for their approval. Jasmine looked at her little brother and waited for his reply.

Bradley smiled, "Sure."

Jasmine smiled at her little brother who smiled back just as the little girl came to join them, sitting next to Jasmine. They started splashing each other with water and were having lots of fun; so much so, they almost didn't hear the woman calling out for the little girl.

"Alanna? Alanna? Alanna!"

They stopped playing and turned around to see who it was. The little girl immediately stood up and ran towards the woman, hugging her thighs upon arrival. She carried the little girl up in her arms and walked over to Jasmine and Bradley who now stood up.

"I'm so sorry… Was she bothering you two?"

Jasmine shook her head, "No… She was playing with me and my little brother."

The woman nodded and smiled, "It's been a while since she played with someone… Oh! I'm Samantha and this here is Alanna, my daughter."

"I'm Jasmine and this is Bradley, my little brother." Jasmine said  
"I know. When Bradley first came in, all the ladies in this camp took turns taking care of him. It's good to see that you're alive and well." Samantha said

Jasmine nodded, "Me too."

She looked at her right for a moment and spotted Phil sitting by himself, fiddling with something in his hand. She turned to Samantha and asked her to take care of Bradley while she went over to talk to Phil. As Jasmine walked closer to Phil, she saw him fiddling with a bow while a quiver of arrows sat next to him.

"Hey." Jasmine said

Phil stopped what he was doing and looked up to see who it was. Seeing that it was Jasmine, he gave her a small smile.

"Hey… How are you feeling?" Phil asked

Jasmine sat down next to him, "Good… Sorry about yesterday… I hope I didn't freak you out."

"You would have if you were a walker but it's natural. So… You're okay now?" Phil asked  
"Yeah… Just so you know… I wasn't in shock because of the walker we encountered. I was actually in my own little world trying to figure out answers to the questions that I had." Jasmine replied  
"So you were okay?" Phil said

Jasmine nodded, "I'm sorry if I made you worry."

Phil shook his head and said, "Well… Worrying is the only way to know that I'm still alive and human."

Jasmine looked at Phil and saw his expression deepen for a moment before he went back to fiddle with the bow.

"Where did you find that bow and arrows?" Jasmine asked  
"I nicked it from someone's house a week ago. Never really learnt how to use it." Phil replied  
"Maybe I can help." Jasmine said

Phil looked at her, "You know how to use this?"

Jasmine smiled and picked the bow out of his hand, "I was a 5-time gold medalist in archery at the regional archery competition."

Phil gave an impressed look, "Wow. I couldn't tell."

"You don't believe me? Okay. I'll show you." Jasmine said, "Tell me where you want me to shoot."

Phil stood up and looked around him until he spotted Bryan holding up a piece of white cloth, several meters away from them.

"See if you can aim at the white cloth Bryan's holding." Phil said

Jasmine looked at the cloth then at Phil and smiled, "Don't blink."

She picked up an arrow from the sheath and placed it in between the bowstring. She aimed at the white cloth and counting to 3 seconds in her head, she released the arrow and it shot straight for the cloth, pinning it against the tree behind Bryan. Almost instantly, Bryan looked around worriedly, wondering where the arrow came from. He spotted Jasmine with the bow and decided to walk over to them.

"Impressive." Phil said, "We could use you on our scavenging team."

"Is that a formal invitation?" Jasmine asked

Phil grinned, "Maybe."

Jasmine shook her head as she laughed slightly. She wanted to return the bow to Phil when he held out his hand to stop her.

"You keep it. Why learn when I already have someone who knows how to use it superbly well?" Phil said

Jasmine didn't say anything but smiled as Phil passed her the sheath of arrows. Just then, Bryan approached them with the white cloth and arrow.

"I believe this is yours?" Bryan said

Jasmine smiled sheepishly, "Yes. I'm so sorry, Bryan. I hope I didn't frighten you…"

He returned the arrow to Jasmine and said, "It's okay… You didn't frighten me… I was just startled."

"Really?" Phil said with an eyebrow raised  
"You must have told her to do that." Bryan said  
"Guilty as charged." Phil said  
"Maybe next time I'll get Jasmine to do that to you." Bryan said  
"Nah… She won't listen to you." Phil said

He looked at Jasmine who looked away as she felt her cheeks warm up. Phil noticed her sudden shyness and chuckled softly to himself.

"By the way, Jasmine… You have amazing archery skills!" Bryan said

Jasmine smiled at Bryan, "Thanks…"

"Where did you learn how to shoot like that?" Bryan asked  
"She's a 5-time gold medalist." Phil replied

Bryan nodded, "No wonder."

He looked at Phil and said, "Anyway, we should get going…"

"Where are you guys going?" Jasmine asked  
"To a high school. We need to get some more medical supplies for Tamina and some more food." Bryan replied

Jasmine nodded and the guys started making their way back to camp.

Phil stopped and looked at her, "Well? Aren't you coming?"

"Now? I can't just leave… What about Bradley?" Jasmine said  
"Alicia can take care of him. She's been doing so before we found you, anyway." Phil said  
"Can I at least talk to him first before I go?" Jasmine asked  
"Sure. We'll wait for you then." Phil replied

He walked on a little further before turning around to say, "But since I formally invited you… I hope you would show."

He gave Jasmine a small, hopeful smile before turning back around to walk back to camp. Jasmine stood there for a while before walking back to the spot where Samantha, Alanna and Bradley were at. She slung the sheath of arrows around her like a satchel would and held the bow tight as she approached them.

"Hey… Thanks Samantha." Jasmine said  
"No problem." Samantha said

She looked at the gear Jasmine just got and said, "You were recruited, huh?"

"Well, I have a set of skills that's useful… Why waste it?" Jasmine said

Bradley looked at her, "Are you going with Phil?"

Jasmine looked at Bradley and ruffled his hair just as Samantha excused herself with Alanna, to give the siblings some space. Jasmine kneeled down on one knee so that she was at eye level with her brother.

"I don't know… It's all very sudden and I don't want to leave you after one day." Jasmine said  
"I'll be fine. It's not like you're going away forever and Phil's there. He'll protect you." Bradley said  
"But who's gonna protect you here while I'm out?" Jasmine asked  
"There are lots of people here who will protect me. Besides, you're only going to be gone for a few hours right?" Bradley replied

Jasmine smiled and touched her little brother's cheek, "Looks like someone's grown up already."

Bradley smiled as he gave his sister a hug, "Promise you'll come back safe."

Jasmine smiled and hugged her little brother tight, "I promise."


	4. A First For Everything

After sending her brother back to the tent and telling Alicia about the situation, she left to meet Phil, who was standing by a truck.

Phil smiled when he saw her and she smiled back.

"Thought you weren't coming." Phil said  
"Well someone offered me a formal invitation… I couldn't not show, right?" Jasmine said

Phil grinned and Jasmine got into the truck with him. The car before the truck started up its engine before Phil started up the truck. Following the car, they started the journey to the high school.

"Why isn't Bryan riding with us?" Jasmine asked  
"This time we're heading to a high school so we need more men with us. Bryan's in the car with Big Show, Ezekiel and Hunico." Phil replied  
"There's a guy named Big Show?" Jasmine said

Phil laughed slightly and said, "No… That's just a nickname we gave him. His real name's Paul. But, wait till you see him… You'll just stick with calling him Big Show."

Jasmine nodded, "Anything else I should know?"

"Yeah… The high school is pretty big so we are not really sure if there are any walkers in there. So, you have to stick with me, okay?" Phil said  
"You think I can't take care of myself?" Jasmine asked  
"No… But, I made a promise to your little brother that I'll bring you back and I will." Phil replied  
"But that was when you came to our house to find me." Jasmine said

Phil looked at Jasmine, "The promise still stands whenever you're away from him."

Jasmine smiled shyly and looked out the window as the truck drove on the highway. In 15 minutes, they turned the bend and finally reached the high school. The car before them stopped and they stopped right behind them. Everyone got out of their vehicles and Jasmine finally got a good look at the others.

"There is our miracle survivor." Ezekiel said  
"Heard you're pretty good with the arrows. Try not to shoot me, ja?" Hunico said  
"I'll do my best unless you become a walker." Jasmine said

Hunico laughed, "Yo, Phil. This one's good for you."

Phil, who was standing behind her, merely smiled as he re-adjusted the strap of his gun.

"Alright. The plan's simple. We go in, get the stuff we need and then we come back out. Simple stuff. We split into teams of 3. Hunico, Bryan, Zeke, you guys take the cafeteria. Phil and Jas, you're with me. We're going to the nurses station." Paul said

Ezekiel nodded, "Everyone… Keep to the 2 hour window. We'll meet back here."

Everyone nodded and got ready their weapons as they were about to head in to the school.

"See you later, amigos." Hunico said

The group split into teams of 3 and they entered from the two different entrances of the school. With Paul leading the way, Jasmine ended up being in the middle, with Phil behind her. As soon as they entered the school, they were greeted by a sign that said, 'SICK BAY'. Paul turned around and smiled at his two followers before opening the door.

He opened the door slowly and held his shotgun in ready position. Jasmine and Phil had their weapons at hand too, just in case they meet with any stray walkers that had found shelter within the sick bay.

"All clear." Paul said, surveying the room.

Paul put his huge bag on the floor in front of the medicine cabinet before opening the doors to it. With his big hand, he swiped everything in the cabinet into his bag while Phil opened the drawers to take the gauze and bandages. Jasmine found a drawer by the sink and found some morphine inside.

"Guys… Morphine." Jasmine said  
"Just what we need." Paul said

Jasmine pulled out the whole drawer, since it was already half-opened and poured the contents into Paul's bag. Once they finished sweeping the entire sick bay, the three of them slowly made their way out. As they walked pass the school's notice board, Jasmine stopped in her tracks as a familiar face grinned back at her from the picture she was looking at. Phil turned around to see Jasmine in front of the notice board and went up to her.

"What's wrong?" Phil asked  
"This guy… He looks familiar." Jasmine replied

Phil squinted at the photo and said, "The blonde one?"

"Yeah. But I don't know him…" Jasmine said  
"Maybe he's just a face you've seen before." Phil said

Jasmine looked at Phil as he said, "Come on."

She nodded and walked on just as Paul stopped them at the door.

"Walkers." Paul said, peering out the school's entrance.

Phil and Jasmine peered from the other door of the school entrance and spotted about 5 walkers around their cars.

"Jasmine. You shoot first." Paul said  
"M-Me?" Jasmine said, not mentally prepared.

Phil looked at Jasmine, "You can do this."

He place his hand atop hers that was holding the bow, and gave it a light squeeze. She nodded and took out one of the arrows from behind her as Paul held open one of the doors for her. She stood at an angle where she could pick out any one of the walkers to shoot at.

"Which one do I shoot?" Jasmine asked  
"Aim for whichever. But, remember, shoot through the head." Paul replied

Jasmine nodded as she raised her bow up and mentally counting to 3, she released the arrow and it shot through the skull of a male walker's head. The other walkers slowly turned and Paul ran out towards the nearest one and with his machete, he sliced the walker's head open on one try. Phil used the butt of his gun to bash the head of another walker while Jasmine used another arrow to bring down another walker. The last walker was finished off with the combined effort of Paul and Phil. The others rejoined their group just as the last walker fell to the floor. Phil pulled out the arrows in the two heads of the walkers and passed it back to Jasmine.

"Good job." Phil said

Jasmine gave him a small smile, "Thanks."

He smiled back as everyone made their way back into their vehicles to head back to camp before more walkers start to find their way to the school.


	5. New Realizations

On their way back, Jasmine couldn't help but wonder why none of the guys used their guns.

As if knowing what Jasmine was about to ask, Phil said, "You wanna know why we didn't use our guns."

"Yeah…" Jasmine said  
"That's because walkers are attracted to sound. If we use our guns just now, more would come." Phil said

Jasmine nodded and looked at Phil, "You are so knowledgeable."

Phil chuckled and said, "When you've been living this nightmare for as long as we did, you'd probably be as knowledgeable as me."

Jasmine nodded and said, "What happened to your family then?"

"Let's see… I was on the road with Bryan when this happened. I never knew what happened to them." Phil said  
"What about your girlfriend?" Jasmine asked

Phil looked at Jasmine, "I don't have one."

"You don't have one?" Jasmine said, a little too excitedly

Phil laughed as he turned his head back to the road. Jasmine mentally slapped herself for sounding a tad bit too desperate. She looked away as she felt heat radiating from her cheeks.

"How about you? Where's your fiancé?" Phil asked  
"I don't have one." Jasmine replied  
"Really? But your finger doesn't say the same." Phil said

Jasmine looked at her finger and realized that there was a mark around her ring finger that indicated she once wore a ring.

"I… I don't have a fiancé. I mean… Not that I know of…" Jasmine said

Phil glanced at Jasmine and saw her staring at her finger with a confused face. He felt bad for bringing it up, seeing that something may have happened in between hence Jasmine didn't know if she was engaged or not.

"I'm just kidding. You must like to wear rings on your finger then." Phil said  
"Yeah… Maybe." Jasmine said, although a part of her knew this is definitely not the case.

Thankfully the ride was pretty short so they finally pulled up at the camp site. Jasmine quickly got out of the car and was about to carry the bag to Tamina's tent when Phil stopped her.

"That's okay. I'll pass it to Tamina. You should go find Bradley." Phil said

Jasmine nodded, "Thanks."

They both exchanged smiles before she left. As Jasmine walked towards her tent she shared with Alicia and Bradley, she couldn't help but wonder why she had that ring mark on her finger. And who was that blonde in the picture?

"Jasmine! You're back!"

She looked up to see her little brother running towards her from an open clearing where he had been playing with Alicia. He collided into her with his arms wrapped around her torso and she gladly hugged him back.

"How was it?" Alicia asked, walking up to them.  
"Um… Depends on your angle. I killed my first 2 walkers." Jasmine replied  
"That's awesome! I'm on the humans' side so I say down with the walkers!" Alicia said

Jasmine laughed as her little brother exclaimed, "My sister is the best!"

Just as she was about to head back to her tent with her brother and Alicia, a petite looking girl walked up to them.

"What's up, AJ?" Alicia asked the girl  
"Hey Alicia. Hey Bradley." AJ greeted

She looked at Jasmine and said, "You must be Jasmine. Can I speak to you in private?"

Jasmine looked at Alicia and her little brother before looking back at AJ, "Sure."

AJ led her towards the clearing where it seemed like there wasn't anyone around. Feeling that they were in a secluded spot, AJ stopped and so did Jasmine.

"So… What's this about?" Jasmine asked  
"First of all, I should introduce myself. My name is AJ Lee." AJ said

Jasmine nodded and said, "And you know my name."

"Yeah… Anyway… I wanted to speak to you in private because… Please stay away from Bryan." AJ said

Jasmine looked at AJ with a slightly confused look before she realized just what AJ was trying to say.

"AJ… I... Bryan and I are not an item." Jasmine said  
"I know. But… He has been talking about you ever since you came here." AJ said  
"Well… I assure you that I do not have any romantic feelings towards Bryan. He and I are just friends." Jasmine said

AJ smiled, "Really?"

"Yes. And if you like Bryan, you should tell him." Jasmine said  
"I want to but he always seem so distracted with something else." AJ said  
"Then get his attention." Jasmine said  
"Like how you got Phil's attention?" AJ asked  
"What do you mean?" Jasmine asked, blushing a little.

AJ chuckled seeing the blush in Jasmine's cheeks.

"Well… Almost all the girls here all find Phil cute. Many have tried to talk to him but he only gives them one-worded answers. You're the first girl who he has a long conversation with." AJ said  
"I'm sure he talks to them privately." Jasmine said

AJ shook her head, "Nope. Bryan says he always stays in the trailer and never likes mingling. Till now."

She grinned at Jasmine, which made her feel much more embarrassed than she already was.

After dinner that night, Jasmine headed to the lake to sit down while the others sat by the camp fire to talk and drink. She was having a good time alone until she heard someone sit down next to her. She looked to her right and saw Phil right next to her.

"Hey. What's the view like?" Phil asked

Jasmine chuckled and said, "The same."

She looked at him, "What are you doing here? I thought you would be with the rest."

"I would be with them if I indulge in alcohol. But, unfortunately, it's not my cup of tea. I'm straight edge." Phil said  
"No drinking, no smoking and no taking drugs." Jasmine said

Phil smiled, "Someone's knowledgeable."

Jasmine chuckled, "Thank you."

She looked at him, "But, since it's basically the end of the world, wouldn't you want to make an exception?"

Phil shook his head, "I'd like to but I've been this way almost my whole life so alcohol may not be to my liking."

"True." Jasmine said

Phil looked at her, "What about you? Why are you here? Bradley might misbehave if you're not there."

"I trust my brother. He may be 10 but he knows a lot more than you and I do. And, I'm here because I need some space to think." Jasmine said  
"I heard alcohol can help with that too." Phil said  
"Too bad for me then. Cause, just like you, I'm straight edge." Jasmine said

Phil laughed slightly as he watched Jasmine, who was smiling too, look out towards the lake. He realized that she was unconsciously touching the finger where he mentioned a ring used to be. With that new realization, Phil suddenly felt stupid for pointing it out.

"Jasmine… I'm sorry for supposedly assuming you were engaged once." Phil said

She looked back at him and said, "It's fine…"

"Is it, really? It's obviously bothering you and I should have just minded my own business." Phil said  
"Phil… It's fine. Really. The truth is I don't even know if I've been engaged or not. I don't even know if I had a boyfriend before my coma. It's as if my memory had been edited out." Jasmine said  
"What do you mean?" Phil asked

Jasmine sighed and said, "My memories feel edited. It's like as if someone purposely removed certain bits of information to prevent me from remembering things. Remember the photo I saw this afternoon at the school?"

"Yeah… You said it looks familiar." Phil said  
"And I have this gut feeling that I know who he is but my memory isn't helping me." Jasmine said

She looked at Phil and saw him thinking about what she just said; although it seemed to Jasmine he was thinking of something else.

"I know. It sounds crazy. You don't have to believe me. I'm the crazy coma girl." Jasmine said

Phil looked at her and said, "No. You're not. I believe you. No one would want to fake losing parts of their memory."

Jasmine gave Phil a small smile, "Thanks."

He smiled back, "No problem. If you need any help, just let me know."

Jasmine nodded, "I will."

Phil stood up to begin his walk back to the trailer when Jasmine stopped him after a few steps.

"Phil? Why are you so nice to me? I mean… AJ's telling me that you're not as nice to the other girls." Jasmine said

He turned around and said, "That's because you're different."

Before Jasmine could ask what Phil meant, he had quickened his steps and disappeared back up the slope towards the camp grounds. Jasmine sat at her spot by the lake for another few minutes before deciding to head back to the grounds.


	6. Budding Romance

She just about reached the back of the camps when two hands reached out to grab her arm from the side. The person led her into the nearest tent and let her go. Jasmine was about to deliver a few punches when she heard giggling coming from the person who grabbed her.

She looked at the person and lightly pushed her.

"Alicia! You scared the crap out of me! I thought you were a walker!" Jasmine said

Alicia laughed and said, "Come on, Jas. Walkers don't grab. They immediately go for the kill."

"In any case; not funny!" Jasmine said  
"Okay, okay. I'm sorry." Alicia said  
"What are we doing here anyway?" Jasmine asked

"Surprise!"

Jasmine looked at the entrance of the tent and in came the other girls.

"What is going on?" Jasmine asked  
"It's an initiation process." Rosa replied

Tamina rolled her eyes and said, "She's just kidding. These girls here are just curious about the budding relationship you and Phil have."

"Budding relationship? We're not together." Jasmine said  
"But that doesn't mean you're not going to get together soon!" AJ said

Jasmine wanted to retort but she couldn't think of anything to say. She knew she was attracted to Phil but that didn't mean he felt the same way.

"She's got nothing to say! That means it's a sign!" Rosa said

Jasmine looked at Rosa and suddenly got a little flustered, "What?! No! Rosa, there is no sign!"

"She's flustered. Girls, we got her." Tamina said  
"Tamina! I thought you were on my side!" Jasmine said

Tamina shrugged, "I was but it's been a long time since any of us had girl talks."

Jasmine looked at the girls and couldn't help but feel a little sad for them. She couldn't imagine what it must have been like those two months. Always fearing that they might end up like those walkers wasn't exactly an ideal group discussion. Not wanting to dampen their mood, she sat down in the circle they've formed and smiled.

"Before I spill any beans, where's my brother?" Jasmine asked  
"We sent him to Phil's trailer." Samantha said, with a smile.  
"Wha-?! Sam!" Jasmine said  
"Sorry, Jas. The girls made me do it. I wanted him to stay with my husband and Alanna but they said no." Samantha said  
"We're helping you, Jas." AJ said

Jasmine shook her head, knowing she couldn't stay mad at these girls. Although she only knew them for a day, she felt like she's known them her whole life. Before Jasmine got into the accident, she didn't have many friends. Even if she did have friends, they didn't really last long. Seeing the group of girls with her now, she finally felt like she truly has friends that are always going to be there for her.

"Fine. I'll go get him after this." Jasmine said, "And if you girls really want to know… Yes. I am attracted to Phil."

"Sexually or romantically?" Rosa asked  
"Ugh! Gross! Rosa!" AJ exclaimed  
"Seriously Rosa!" Alicia said

Rosa shrugged and said, "In this time of darkness, it's not a crime to have lust-filled ideas!"

Jasmine laughed and said, "Okay, okay! Girls! To answer Rosa's question, for the time being, it's romantically."

"But it will turn into sexually soon, right?" Rosa asked  
"Maybe." Jasmine replied

The girls all laughed as Jasmine felt her face heat up just a little.

"So, what were you two doing out by the lake?" Tamina asked  
"Wait… How did you know?" Jasmine asked  
"It's not hard to figure out. First you left and then Phil followed." Alicia replied  
"Were you two having a secret meeting?" AJ asked

Jasmine chuckled and said, "No, we were not. In fact, we didn't even plan the meeting. I was just there to clear my head."

"And Phil came to see if you were okay?" Samantha asked  
"Yeah." Jasmine replied  
"Are you sure it was that simple? No kissing?" Rosa asked

Jasmine shook her head, "No kissing."

"That is a boring story." Tamina said  
"Wha-Hey! At least I told you how I felt." Jasmine said  
"Yeah… But we wanted to know if Phil feels the same way!" AJ said  
"I don't know…" Jasmine said  
"Has he done or said anything that might give you some sort of an idea?" Alicia asked  
"Well… Yeah…" Jasmine replied

AJ clapped her hands excitedly, "Ooo! What is it?"

"I asked him why he's being so nice to me since AJ told me he wasn't really a gentleman to the other girls here. And he said that's because I'm different." Jasmine said

Rosa snapped her fingers and said, "He likes you."

"Definitely." Alicia said

Jasmine looked at them confused, "Wait, how do you know? It's such a general statement."

"Yes, but it's code for 'because I like you'." Samantha said  
"Girls, I think you're reading too much into it." Jasmine said  
"No… We're not reading too much into it. Hunico said that to me before we got together." Rosa said  
"And Randy said that to me when he wanted to date me in high school. Now, we're married." Samantha said  
"It's code, Jas. And you better believe it." Alicia said

Jasmine shook her head and said, "Okay, okay. You girls win. But, I'll believe it when it happens, 'kay?"

The girls nodded and decided to end their girl talk after Samantha said it was getting late. The girls all left the tent one by one, finally revealing the owner of the tent to be AJ. Tamina was walking back to her tent when Jasmine caught up with her.

"Hey, Tamina…" Jasmine said

Tamina turned around, "Yeah?"

"Can I ask you a question?" Jasmine asked  
"Sure. What is it?" Tamina said  
"Is there a medical substance of any kind that can edit certain parts of a person's memory?" Jasmine asked

Tamina thought for a while before saying, "There aren't any legal and approved ones that I know of but there is one that generates a similar result."

"Is there any cure for it?" Jasmine asked  
"Yes, but, it depends. If the dosage had been constantly fed to the person, it's highly unlikely to get back the edited parts of the memory. But, if the dosage was irregularly fed, it's possible." Tamina replied  
"How do you do it?" Jasmine asked  
"I've majored in psychology before and we could use hypnosis to get the memories back." Tamina replied

She looked at Jasmine strangely and said, "Why are you asking?"

"I want you try the cure out on me." Jasmine said  
"What? Why?" Tamina asked  
"Because I think someone fed me the drug. Certain parts of my memory are edited out. If I try to recall them, they seem like they jump from frame to frame." Jasmine replied

Tamina frowned a little, "You've definitely been drugged during your coma. Come by tomorrow morning and we'll start on the treatment."

"It is safe, right?" Jasmine asked  
"Yes. The worst scenario that can happen is you not recovering the edited memories at all." Tamina replied

Jasmine nodded and thanked Tamina for her help before walking towards Phil's trailer. Just as she was about to knock on the trailer door, Phil opened the door.

"Hey." Jasmine said  
"Hey. Here to pick Bradley up?" Phil asked  
"Yes… Where is he?" Jasmine asked  
"Knocked out on my bed." Phil replied

Jasmine gave Phil a slightly confused look as he moved aside to let her in. She walked into the trailer and looked around until she spotted her little brother sleeping on Phil's bed.

"Were you guys playing before he fell asleep?" Jasmine asked  
"Yeah." Phil replied

Jasmine smiled, "Figures. It's always easier to get him to sleep when he gets tired."

"Not to mention harder to wake him." Phil said  
"That part too." Jasmine said  
"I've tried for the past 10 minutes. I was about to go and find you but you saved me the trouble." Phil said  
"By turning up at your door." Jasmine said  
"Exactly." Phil said

Jasmine chuckled and walked over to Phil's bed, where her brother was sleeping. She lightly shook his shoulder but Bradley only nestled his head into Phil's pillow. Jasmine sat down on Phil's bed and tried another time but it didn't work.

She turned to look at Phil who was leaning against the toilet door.

"Sorry… He's really asleep." Jasmine said, "Is it okay if he slept here?"

Phil shrugged and said, "No problem. I can take the couch out front."

Before he walked towards the couch, he said, "You can stay here too."

Jasmine looked at him, a little confused at what he was trying to say. Realizing that it could mean something else, Phil cleared his throat.

"I mean… Because he's your little brother and you wouldn't want to leave him here in a stranger's trailer, right?" Phil said  
"Uh, right! Yeah. I'll stay here with him then." Jasmine said

Phil managed a small but shy smile as he made his way towards the couch. He sat down and tried to make himself comfortable. Jasmine took off her shoes and crawled onto Phil's bed. As soon as her head touched the pillow, she could feel herself getting drowsy. The last thing she felt before she fell asleep was Bradley hugging her waist and she hugging him back.

Phil sat up to look at Bradley and Jasmine, only to smile to himself, seeing the siblings together. He crossed his arms under his head as he looked up at the ceiling of his trailer. It was becoming pretty clear to him that he was indeed feeling something for Jasmine. They may have only met just a day before but there was something about her that attracted him. He knew that he had the chance to tell her he liked her but he didn't know why he didn't. It wasn't like him to not say what he thought or felt. Was it because he really liked her and he didn't want to freak her out by admitting it? Or was it because he needed to uphold some kind of leadership around the camp? Phil thought hard about it and knew that it definitely wasn't the latter. He shook his head and tried to go to sleep as he didn't want that to keep him up.


	7. Danger Lurks

The next morning, Phil woke up on his couch and sat up slowly to see if Jasmine and Bradley were awake. But instead of finding them on his bed, they were not there anymore. He opened his door just as Bryan was on his way in.

"Yo, buddy. You're awake!" Bryan said, "We left you some cereal bars. You're an hour late in waking up today."

Phil rubbed his eyes and looked out the door, "I am?"

Bryan looked at him suspiciously, "What were you up to last night? I saw Bradley here with you. And I saw Jasmine going to see you."

"Uh, yeah. She came to pick her brother up. The girls had their thing last night." Phil said  
"Oh… Yeah. No wonder I couldn't find AJ last night. I wanted her to pass this necklace I got for Jasmine to her." Bryan said

Phil looked at Bryan, "You got a necklace?"

"Yeah. I got it from a house we looted last week. I was keeping it in case I meet a girl I like and I wanna give it to her." Bryan said

Phil unwrapped a cereal bar, "Does Jasmine know you like her?"

"No… But I was thinking of telling her today." Bryan said

Phil bit into his cereal bar and chewed it slowly as he felt his heart sink with the rise of Bryan's mood. Meanwhile, Jasmine was in Tamina's tent, getting ready for the hypnosis session.

"Okay, Jasmine… I want you to relax and take in deep breaths." Tamina said

Jasmine nodded as she sat on Tamina's chair in a relaxed position.

"Think of the chair you're sitting on as a soft cushiony couch. Picture yourself in the college library." Tamina said

Jasmine relaxed and her mind slowly as she pictured her college library.

She was sitting on one of the couches in the study room, studying a play for her scripting class. Next to her was someone's bag but the person wasn't there. The bag was black and on top of the bag sat 3 textbooks. The one on the top read, 'Chemicals and Genes'.

"Look around you. What do you see?" Tamina asked

Jasmine looked around in her mind, and saw posters for a school event.

"There are posters stuck on the walls." Jasmine said  
"What do they read?" Tamina asked  
"'Spring Fling in UCLA 2011'" Jasmine replied  
"Good. Now, what else do you see?" Tamina asked  
"A bag next to me on the couch. There are 3 textbooks sitting on top of it." Jasmine replied  
"Is there anyone sitting next to you?" Tamina asked  
"No. There isn't." Jasmine replied  
"That's okay. What about the textbooks? What are they about?" Tamina asked  
"There's one about 'Chemicals and Genes'." Jasmine said  
"What about the other two?" Tamina asked

In her mind, Jasmine tried to look at the titles of the other two textbooks but even though the words are there, she just couldn't make out what they are.

"I can't read them." Jasmine said  
"Are they in another language?" Tamina asked  
"No… They're in English but I just can't read them." Jasmine replied  
"That's okay… Why don't you try to open the first textbook to find a name?" Tamina said

With Tamina's instructions, Jasmine reached over to the textbook and was about to open it when she was brought back to reality by the sudden burst and loud exclamation of her name.

"JASMINE!"

Tamina looked at the person and said, "AJ! What is it?! Didn't I say not to disturb?!"

Jasmine slowly opened her eyes to see AJ standing at the entrance of Tamina's tent with a very worried look on her face.

"I'm so sorry, Tamina. But this is very, very important." AJ said  
"What is it, AJ?" Jasmine asked  
"Bra-Bradley's missing." AJ said

Jasmine shot up from her chair, "WHAT?!"

"I- Sam and I were watching Alanna and Bradley play. We took our eyes off them for a while when Rosa came over… When we turned back, Alanna was still there playing but Bradley… Bradley wasn't there." AJ said  
"Did you check the surroundings?" Tamina asked

"We did. We even checked the lake. But… He isn't there." AJ replied, "Jasmine…. I am so sorry!"

Jasmine didn't say anything as she pushed past AJ to exit the tent. As soon as she walked out, she saw most of the people in the camp looking for Bradley too. Jasmine walked over to her tent that she shared with Alicia to take her bow and arrows.

"What are you doing?" Alicia asked  
"Going to find my brother. He might have gone out into the woods." Jasmine replied

She was about to reach for her bow when Alicia took it.

"Jasmine! Are you crazy?! The woods isn't that safe! There could be walkers in there!" Alicia exclaimed

Jasmine turned to look at Alicia as tears started to fall from her eyes, "Then what do you expect me to do?! He's my little brother! I'm supposed to take care of him! If there are walkers in there, he wouldn't survive!"

"Well, you wouldn't too! You only came into our plagued world 2 days ago. You think you can take them on with just a day's experience?!" Alicia said, "Yeah. You may be a skilled archer but what can 12 arrows do if there are 24 of them?"

Jasmine fell to the floor and cried, "What am I supposed to do now?"

Just as Alicia was about to comfort her, Phil came into the tent. As soon as he heard the news from Randy, he picked up his machete and tied it to his waist before carrying his shotgun with him. He came straight to the tent Alicia shared with Jasmine and Bradley first, because he knew what she would try to do.

Phil kneeled down on one knee in front of her and cupped her face, so that she would look at him.

"Hey, Jasmine. Look at me. Remember the promise I made to Bradley? It's extended to you too. I promise you. I'll find him and bring him back safe, okay?" Phil said

Jasmine just nodded as Phil let his fingers clean her tears away before he stood up to leave the tent while Alicia comforted her.

"You're not seriously going in there alone, right?" Bryan asked, worried  
"I have to. I just made Jasmine a promise." Phil replied  
"Well then, I'm going in there with you." Bryan said

Phil stopped walking and turned around to look at Bryan, "Look Bryan. This isn't the time to claim credit to get into her good books. This is a matter of life and death. I've got to find her little brother before any walkers find him. I cannot afford to have someone in there with me that I can't account for, you understand?"

Bryan's shoulders slumped in disappointment, although he knew that Phil was right.

"Stay here and take care of camp. Ask the guys to surround the camp and stand guard while I go in and find Bradley." Phil said  
"Got it." Bryan said

Just as Phil was about to enter, Bryan stopped him.

"Hey, Phil. Take care and come back safe with the kid." Bryan said

Phil nodded and walked into the forest. As he walked further into the forest, he made himself one rule. And that one rule was to find Bradley no matter what. Since the soil became slightly moist as he got deeper into the forest, he figured it would be the best way to track Bradley. And true enough, he spotted a small set of footprints headed towards the left. He tracked it all the way till it stopped at a tree. He looked around and thinking that Bradley could have climbed up the tree, he looked up. And what he saw was Bradley, up in the trees with his eyes closed as he hugged his knee.

"Bradley!" Phil called out

Hearing a familiar voice, Bradley opened his eyes and to his relief, he couldn't be happier to see Phil, standing under the tree.

"Phil!" Bradley exclaimed  
"Come on, Bradley. I'm here to take you back to your sister." Phil said  
"Is the bad man gone?" Bradley asked

Phil frowned a little as he processed the words that came out of Bradley's mouth. Not bothering to find an answer to who the bad man is, Phil's priority was getting Bradley down before anything bad happens.

"Yeah. He's gone. Come on, Bradley. We need to get out of here before we see any walkers." Phil said

Bradley nodded and slowly climbed down the tree. As soon as his feet touched the ground, he hugged Phil tight.

"I'm here, buddy. I'm here." Phil said

He slowly but forcefully pried Bradley away from him and said, "Come on, we've got to get back."

Noticing that Bradley was looking scared all of a sudden, Phil turned around to see one of the guys from his camp standing there with a knife.

"It's the bad man!" Bradley said

With his eyes still on the guy, Phil said to Bradley, "Bradley, listen to me. When I tell you to run, you run. Understand? Don't look back. Just run. All the way straight. Back to camp. Understand?"

Not hearing an answer, Phil shouted, "Understand?!"

"Yes!" Bradley said, amidst his tears.

Phil took out his machete and held it out in front of him. As soon as the guy lunged towards Phil, he used his machete to block him off.

"RUN!" Phil yelled

Despite not wanting to leave Phil, Bradley followed instructions and ran as fast as he could, like what Phil said. Glancing at Bradley's running form, he quickly turned his attention back to the matter at hand. This guy was coming at him with whatever he had. Fending off his move wasn't going to work. He needed to injure this guy so that he could find out why he was after Bradley. The two of them kept fending off each other's moves until finally, Phil succeeded in cutting the guy's arm. But, not knowing the guy was not affected by it, Phil got stabbed in his right side. The guy pulled out his knife and smirked at Phil before running off in the other direction.

Although Bradley was pretty far away from what happened, he could still see Phil get stabbed. With this new information at hand, he ran even faster to get help.

"I see someone! It's Bradley!" Bryan exclaimed

Jasmine quickly made her way to the entrance of the forest just in time, as her brother collided into her arms.

"Bradley! Thank goodness! Are you okay?! What happened?! Why did you run off like that?!" Jasmine said  
"The bad man was after me and Phil got injured because of him." Bradley said  
"Bad man? What are you talking about? What happened to Phil?!" Jasmine said, worriedly.  
"Phil asked me to run ahead while he fought with the bad man. But I turned around to see if he's okay when I saw the bad man stab Phil!" Bradley said

Jasmine immediately looked at Bryan and said, "I've got to go in there!"

"You can't. Phil said—"

Before Bryan could finish his sentence, Paul aka Big Show interrupted him.

"Phil's back!" Paul said

Phil just about made it towards them when Jasmine ran up to hug him.

"I told you I'll get him back, right?" Phil said, weakly.

As soon as he said that, Phil fainted onto Jasmine and Bryan rushed over to help hold him up. Paul came over to help too as they brought him back to his trailer.


	8. New Discoveries

Tamina took her medical supplies from her tent and hurried over to the trailer to help with the wound. Jasmine knew she wasn't of much help so she stayed outside with Bradley while Tamina worked on patching Phil up.

"Bradley… Are you okay?" Jasmine asked

Bradley nodded, "Will Phil be okay?"

"He will be. Why don't you tell me what happened?" Jasmine said, "Who's the bad man?"

"I don't know his name… But I can show you where he stays." Bradley said

Bradley lightly tugged on Jasmine's hand as she got up to follow him. With his hand holding onto Jasmine's hand, he led her towards a tent at the back that looked a little different from the rest. Alicia had followed after seeing the two of them going there.

"What's going on?" Alicia asked  
"This is where the bad man stays." Bradley replied

Jasmine looked at Alicia, "Do you know who stays here?"

"I'm not sure but I think it's that weird guy who barely talks. He joined us around the time Bradley came to join us." Alicia said

As Jasmine approached the tent, Bradley only held her hand tighter. She looked at her little brother and saw how scared he was. She lightly squeezed his hand in hers to show that she was there and he didn't have to worry. With Alicia on her other side, they opened the entrance to the tent and were shocked to find photos of Jasmine and her family.

"What the hell is this?" Alicia said

She entered the tent first and looked around, "These are all pictures of you and your family."

"Bradley, it's okay. He's not here." Jasmine said to him.

He slowly opened his eyes but didn't let Jasmine's hand go. At the corner of her eye, Jasmine noticed a newspaper article that looked kinda out of place amidst the many photographs. She walked towards it and looked at it. It read, 'Car accident sends UCLA student into a coma'. Not wanting to let Alicia see it, she took it off and folded it before putting it into her pocket.

Jasmine turned around and said, "Alicia, we have to find out who stayed here. Do you know who has that information?"

"That would be Randy." Alicia said  
"Let's go find him then." Jasmine said

Alicia nodded and they all left the tent as they made their way over to Randy and Samantha's tent.

"Bradley!" Samantha exclaimed, "Thank god you're alright!"

Jasmine looked at Randy and said, "Randy, I need your help."

"Sure. How can I help?" Randy said  
"Do you know who stays in that tent a little far off from ours? I think it belongs to the guy who didn't talk much." Alicia said

Randy thought for a while then said, "Oh yeah. I remember him. Donald Hager. He came here just after Phil brought Bradley back."

As soon as Randy said the guy's name, Jasmine felt a sudden rush of a fragment of her memory come back to her. She couldn't see who was talking to her but she could see the face of the guy her brother was afraid of.

"_Jasmine, this is Donald Hager. My best friend."  
_  
A voice echoed in her mind. She stepped back a little, feeling a little light-headed. Everyone noticed and Alicia's hand instantly came up to support Jasmine.

"Whoa, Jasmine. Are you okay?" Alicia asked

Jasmine shook her head lightly to clear it before saying, "Yeah… Yeah… I'm fine."

"Are you sure you're okay?" Samantha asked  
"Yeah. Randy, what else can you tell me about him?" Jasmine asked  
"He was a strange guy. I always felt he had something to hide." Randy replied  
"Yeah. He did. He had photos of Jasmine and her family!" Alicia said  
"Well, do you know him?" Samantha asked Jasmine.  
"Not that I can remember… Maybe. I don't know." Jasmine replied  
"Whatever it is, I'm going to let the other guys know about it. I'll get them to seal the tent and make sure he doesn't come back." Randy said  
"Not like he would after he injured Phil." Alicia said

Randy looked at Alicia and said, "It wouldn't hurt to be prepared just in case."

Alicia nodded as Randy made his way out of the tent, together with them. Just as Jasmine turned to look at the Phil's trailer, she saw Tamina coming out, with Bryan by her side. She jogged over to them, with Bradley and Alicia behind her.

"How is he?" Jasmine asked Tamina

Tamina sighed, "Nothing serious for now but we'll have to observe him. He passed out from the pain so that was good since it'll let him sleep. But since we don't have access to any hospital, I did the best I could to patch him up. That also means that he could easily get blood poisoning if his bandages aren't changed every 3 hours."

"I'll do it." Jasmine said  
"I knew you'd volunteer, so I set aside his bandages and some morphine if he wakes up and feels pain." Tamina said  
"Okay." Jasmine said  
"I'll come by in the morning to check on him again." Tamina said

Jasmine nodded, "Thanks Tamina."

Tamina gave Jasmine a small smile before walking back towards her tent.

"Would you like me to stay with you?" Bryan asked  
"That's okay, Bryan. I'll stay here with my little brother." Jasmine replied

Bryan nodded, "I'll come by later to bring you some snacks then."

Jasmine nodded and Bryan gave her a small smile before walking towards Paul's tent.

She turned to Alicia, "Sorry Alicia…"

"No worries. I'm starting to like sleeping alone. You take good care of Phil." Alicia said

Jasmine smiled and hugged Alicia before she walked away from the trailer, leaving Bradley and her alone. Holding Bradley's hand in hers, the two of them walked into Phil's trailer and closed the door behind them. Deciding to put her brother to sleep first, she glanced over at the motionless Phil before leading her brother to the couch.

She sat him down and said, "Bradley, get some sleep, okay?"

"I'm scared, Jasmine." Bradley said

Jasmine gave Bradley a small smile as she touched his face, "There's nothing to be afraid of, okay? I'm here and Phil's here. You'll be safe here. Just try to get some sleep."

He nodded reluctantly as he laid back onto the couch and put his head on the pillow that Jasmine had adjusted for him. She brushed away the hair covering his eyes and kissed him on the forehead.

"Night, Bradley." Jasmine said  
"Good-night, Jasmine." Bradley replied

She smiled as her little brother slowly closed his eyes and gave into his tired body. She sat there for another minute more to make sure he's asleep before walking over to Phil, who was on his bed. Jasmine sat down by the corner against the wall as she watched over him. Seeing him lying there without a shirt on and only the bandage covering his abdomen area where the injury was only made Jasmine feel more indebted to Phil. But, she knew there was more to that feeling. She was falling for Phil and there was absolutely no way of denying it any longer.


	9. Some Breakthrough

3 hours passed and it was time for Phil to change his bandages. Jasmine had stayed awake the entire time because she couldn't fall asleep after the events that took place. She got up from the bed and walked over to the table near the sofa her brother was sleeping on, to take the fresh bandages. She returned to where Phil was and slowly helped Phil up by his shoulders, so that she could change the bandages; since they were wrapped around his abdomen area. Looking at the wound, Jasmine knew it was a pretty deep stab. Thankfully, it didn't hurt any internal organs or things might have been worse. She just finished changing the bandage on Phil when a knock was heard on the door. Jasmine slowly laid Phil down to a sleeping position before getting up with the bloodied bandages in hand.

She opened the door and standing there was none other than Bryan.

"Hey." Bryan said  
"Hey…" Jasmine said

Realizing that Bryan was looking at the bloodied bandages in her hand, Jasmine laughed awkwardly as she threw it into the bin.

"Sorry… I just finished changing his bandages." Jasmine said  
"That's okay… How is he?" Bryan asked  
"Still not awake yet…" Jasmine replied  
"At least he's not in any immediate danger." Bryan said

Jasmine nodded before asking, "What brings you here?"

"Oh! Right… I, uh… I brought you some energy bars just in case you're hungry…" Bryan said, showing a few to Jasmine.  
"Thanks but I'm not really in the mood to eat or sleep after what happened today…" Jasmine said

Bryan nodded, "I know… I heard from Randy. I knew that Donald guy was weird."

Realizing Jasmine wasn't talking anymore, Bryan cleared his throat, "At least the two of you are unharmed."

"Yeah… But Phil isn't." Jasmine said  
"He'll pull through this." Bryan said

Jasmine nodded, "Do you wanna come in and see him?"

"No… Um… Actually… I have something to say to you… I don't know if this is the right time to do this but if I don't do it now, when is the right time?" Bryan said

Jasmine merely shrugged and said, "What's up?"

"I, uh… Have something for you…" Bryan said, pulling the necklace he wanted to give her, out of his pocket.

He continued, "Since we found you in your house, I kinda have a crush on you. And… I needed to let you know that."

Jasmine looked at the necklace in Bryan's palm before reaching over to close his hand into a fist.

"Thank you, Bryan… But, I can't accept this." Jasmine said  
"You mean the necklace? Yeah… Not the right thing to give especially since I looted it." Bryan said

Jasmine smiled a little and shook her head, "It's not that… I can't accept your confession either."

"What? Why? Is there someone else?" Bryan asked

Jasmine nodded, "You can say that…"

"Can you tell me who he is?" Bryan asked  
"Not right now... Since I haven't told him. But, thank you for telling me that." Jasmine replied

Bryan nodded and turned around, about to walk away when Jasmine's hand held onto his shoulder.

"Wait, Bryan, before you go… There's something I should tell you." Jasmine said

Bryan turned back around and looked at her as she continued, "There's someone here who has a crush on you since she met you. I'm not going to say who but she deserves your attention way more than I do."

"There is?" Bryan said

Jasmine nodded, "And she's pretty too. She can be shy at times but that can be an added bonus too, right?"

Bryan thought for a while then said, "You mean AJ?"

Jasmine smiled and nodded, "Yup."

"I didn't know she had a crush on me. I thought it was a little strange that whenever I wanted to hang out with someone, she'd be there for me. So… It's because she has a crush on me." Bryan said  
"Yes. But, Bryan… Don't confront her unless you have the same feelings for her too." Jasmine said

Bryan looked at Jasmine, "That you don't have to worry about. I've always had a liking for AJ but I never wanted to accept it because I thought it would make things weird. But, seeing that it's already like the end of the world, who cares?"

Jasmine nodded and smiled, "True that."

Bryan smiled back and said, "Thanks Jasmine."

"No problem." Jasmine replied, "And, remember to give AJ the necklace."

"I will. Good-night." Bryan said

Jasmine returned the greeting as Bryan left and went off in the direction of AJ's tent. Jasmine wanted to tell Bryan that he should do it tomorrow morning since it was already past midnight but she knew that even if AJ had been awoken to this, she wouldn't feel sleepy at all. Jasmine smiled to herself as she closed the door of the trailer.

She walked back to her previous position on Phil's bed and sat there observing him. Jasmine tried falling asleep but whenever she closed her eyes, the haunting fragment of memory came back to her. She knew the person that frightened her little brother. But, that didn't bother her as much as the fact that he had pictures of her family and her. Remembering that she had taken a newspaper article from his tent earlier, she reached into her back pocket and took it out. She opened up the newspaper article and the headline screamed at her again. Looking beyond the headline, Jasmine dived into the story.

'_**CAR ACCIDENT SENDS UCLA STUDENT INTO COMA'**_

_UCLA, CALI – Yesterday afternoon, a student from the UCLA school of theatre, film and television met with a car accident just outside of Nemeth Corporations. The student, known as Jasmine Ong, was on her way out from Nemeth Corporations when a car reportedly drove straight at her. Although she didn't sustain any serious injuries, the accident has sent Ong into a coma and doctors are not hopeful in putting a date to her waking up. Police are still investigating the causes for the accident and are not ruling out foul play. Nemeth Corporations' Chairman, Theodore Nemeth said that he will give the authorities full co-operation to find the culprit behind the accident. Nicholas Nemeth (pictured below) is Ong's fiancé and has said that he will do everything in his power to find the person who did this. The Los Angeles California police department are still looking for any witnesses to the crime and currently do not have any suspects in custody._

As soon as she finished reading the article, her eyes immediately wandered to the bottom of the newspaper article where the picture of her supposed fiancé was. But, instead of the picture she wanted to see, it had been colored out by a black marker; making it impossible for Jasmine to make out his face. Although there wasn't a face, at least Jasmine had a name. With all the new information in her mind, it was even more impossible for her to fall asleep. So, Jasmine stayed up throughout the night, changing Phil's bandage every 3 hours.


	10. The Nemeths

As soon as night became day, Jasmine looked at the working clock on Phil's table to see that it was 8am already. She looked over at her brother sleeping on the sofa and smiled, seeing him still asleep. Jasmine sat up properly and stretched a little just as a knock was heard on the door. She got up and opened the door to see Tamina standing there with a plate of scrambled eggs and un-toasted bread.

"Morning." Tamina said

Jasmine smiled, "Morning."

"I'm guessing you didn't eat the whole night nor sleep… So, here's some breakfast to give you a little bit of energy." Tamina said  
"Thanks." Jasmine said, taking the plate from Tamina.

She stepped aside just as Tamina came into the trailer and walked up to Phil.

Tamina looked at him and said, "He looks much better than last night. There's some color coming back to his face. When was the last time you changed the bandages?"

"It should be about 2 hours ago." Jasmine said  
"That's okay. I'll just take a look at his wound and change the bandages." Tamina said

Jasmine nodded as she walked over to her little brother to give her some room. As she did, Bradley stirred and slowly sat up, rubbing his eyes sleepily.

"Jasmine?" Bradley said  
"Hey Bradley… Slept well?" Jasmine asked

Bradley nodded, "Yes."

"Are you hungry? Tamina brought some breakfast." Jasmine said

Bradley smiled and took the plate from Jasmine's hands as he started to eat. She smiled and messed his hair a little just as Tamina came over.

"Morning, Bradley." Tamina greeted  
"Morning, Tamina." Bradley replied

Jasmine stood up and asked, "So… How's the wound?"

"It looks better but it will take some time to heal. Did Phil wake up during the night?" Tamina asked  
"No… I was awake the whole night and he slept peacefully." Jasmine replied

Tamina looked at Jasmine, "You didn't sleep?"

Jasmine shook her head, "No… I have so many unanswered questions and I just couldn't sleep."

"Want some help? Maybe I can help you work it out." Tamina said

Jasmine nodded and passed Tamina the newspaper article, "Read this and tell me if you know anything about it."

Tamina took the article from Jasmine and started to read it.

As soon as she finished, Tamina said, "Nemeth Corporations… You were Nicholas' fiancée?"

"Apparently so. This tan line on my finger says that I have been wearing a ring for sometime but I have no recollection of him or how he looks like." Jasmine said, "Do you know anything about him or his father's company?"

"Well… I don't know much but I did go to Nemeth for an interview before. I wanted their summer internship program but I wasn't shortlisted." Tamina said  
"So they make medicine?" Jasmine asked  
"Not exactly. They do that too but they are mainly focused on genetic DNA engineering." Tamina replied  
"Genetic DNA engineering?" Jasmine repeated

Tamina nodded, "Yeah. They are the only corporation that has the most advances in this field and frankly, I think they are the ones who started this nightmare."

"What do you mean?" Jasmine asked  
"Someone within the corporation created a serum that was meant for life extension. But, it went awry from there. The serum didn't work well with the human DNA and those test subjects became the first batch of walkers." Tamina replied  
"Didn't the corporation know about it? Couldn't they have stopped it?" Jasmine asked  
"They could have if the symptoms showed earlier. The test subjects left the facility looking okay. It was only later that they started to turn into non-humans." Tamina replied  
"So… What happened to the Nemeths?" Jasmine asked  
"Well… Some said they escaped when news broke. Some said they were affected. But, no one really knows." Tamina replied

Jasmine nodded as her little brother tugged her hand.

She turned around to face Bradley and said, "Yes?"

"I need to pee." Bradley said  
"Alright, I'll go with you." Jasmine said  
"I'll stay and look after Phil." Tamina said

Jasmine nodded, "Thanks."

She spotted Phil's machete by the corner and picked it up on her way out. She figured since she's accompanying Bradley into the forest to relief himself, she needed some sort of protection. The two of them walked a little into the forest before Bradley found a spot behind a tree. Jasmine waited by the corner for a few minutes until he was done.

"Come on, let's go find some water to wash your hands." Jasmine said

Bradley nodded and walked before Jasmine as they headed back into camp. She found the communal basin that had water and scooped up a cup of water for Bradley. With the water, he washed his hands and washed his face. Jasmine used a little on herself too, to wash her face before putting the cup back in.

As the two of them were going to head back to the trailer, AJ came up to them.

"Oh my gosh! Jasmine! THANK YOU SO MUCH!" AJ exclaimed

Jasmine smiled, "I'm guessing that necklace was a gift from Bryan?"

"Yes! And he asked me to be his girlfriend! Thank you so much for talking to him… Even though I wasn't entirely for the idea. But, it worked!" AJ said  
"You're welcome then." Jasmine said  
"Well, enough about me. How's Phil?" AJ asked  
"Tamina's with him now… She said he's looking better." Jasmine replied  
"Has he woken up yet?" AJ asked

Jasmine shook her head, "No…"

"Well, he'll be awake soon. I'm sure of it." AJ said

Jasmine smiled just as Randy came over to join them.

"Hey." Randy greeted  
"Hey Randy." The two girls said  
"I should go. I'll see you later." AJ said

Jasmine nodded and waved as AJ walked away.

She looked at Randy and asked, "What's up?"

"Nothing… I just came by to see if you'd like me to take care of Bradley for you. You look like you didn't sleep the whole night." Randy said  
"You could say that…" Jasmine said  
"Then you should go get some sleep. I'll take care of Bradley for you and nothing will happen to him on my watch." Randy said

Jasmine laughed slightly and said, "Alright then."

She turned around and looked at Bradley, "Hey… Are you okay with spending the day with Randy?"

Bradley nodded, "Yup! You should get some sleep."

Jasmine smiled and hugged Bradley before letting him go to hand him over to Randy.

"See you later." Jasmine said

Bradley smiled and waved at her before walking together with Randy to the lake to play. Instead of walking back to her tent, she walked back to Phil's trailer, where Tamina was. She opened the door and saw Tamina reading a book.

"Oh, hey, you're back." Tamina said  
"Yup. What are you reading?" Jasmine asked  
"A book I found in my tent. I didn't know I had it." Tamina replied

Jasmine laughed a little as Tamina did.

"Well, I should get going. You better get some sleep." Tamina said, "Phil's bandages only need to be changed every 6 hours now. So, that gives you enough time to sneak in a nap."

Jasmine nodded, "I'll try."

Tamina nodded and pat Jasmine's shoulder before leaving the trailer. Jasmine walked over to Phil, who was still lying motionless on the bed and sat by the corner she was at earlier. Seeing Phil's limp hand by the side of his body, she slowly reached over and held his hand in hers. Feeling the warmth of Phil's hand, she tightened the hold a little. She moved closer to his body and slowly, she closed her eyes.


	11. All's Good For Now

Phil woke up with a pain in his side. Thinking back to the earlier events, he remembered he was stabbed. He looked around the room and realized that he was back in his trailer. Feeling someone holding his hand, he looked to his left and saw Jasmine's sleeping body next to his, with his hand in hers. He smiled to himself as he reached over slowly, with his right hand, to brush the hair out of Jasmine's face. He took in the sight of a sleeping Jasmine for a while before feeling his abdomen area where the bandage was. Although Phil could now feel the full effects of the stab, there was a comfort in his pain that came from Jasmine's hold on his hand. He turned his head slowly to look at Jasmine as she slept. He wanted to adjust his body when he felt a sharp pain, inadvertently squeezing her hand really tight.

As soon as Jasmine felt the squeeze, she woke up to find Phil's eyes closed shut in pain.

"Oh my gosh! Phil! Are you okay?" Jasmine asked, "I'll go get the morphine."

She was about to let go of Phil's hand when he held it tighter and shook his head lightly.

"The pain's passing. Don't." Phil said

Remembering the conversation by the lake, Jasmine realized that morphine was a kind of drug and no matter what, Phil wouldn't want to put it in his body.

"Alright." Jasmine said

A few minutes passed and Phil's face relaxed as he felt the pain subside.

"Are you feeling better?" Jasmine asked  
"Yeah." Phil replied  
"I'll go get a towel to clean up your sweat." Jasmine said  
"No, don't… Stay." Phil said

Jasmine nodded and sat back down, "You're awake."

"Yeah…" Phil said, "Tamina patched me up?"

"Yup. Don't worry… She didn't use any drugs on you. You kinda passed out before she started to patch up your wounds." Jasmine said  
"I'm pretty weak." Phil joked

Jasmine chuckled, "No… You're not."

Suddenly realizing that she was holding Phil's hand, Jasmine became embarrassed and wanted to let his hand go when he in turn, held onto her hand.

"What do you think you're doing?" Phil asked, "Aren't we an item now?"

Jasmine looked at him with a puzzled look as he slowly sat up by himself so that he was at her eye level. Distracted by worrying about Phil's injury, Jasmine didn't see Phil lean in as he surprised her with a kiss on the lips. Despite the sudden kiss, she still closed her eyes as Phil deepened the kiss. He broke the kiss after a while when he felt a sore pain.

"Are you okay?" Jasmine asked  
"I'm good." Phil replied  
"So… What was that supposed to mean?" Jasmine said  
"It's pretty obvious, right?" Phil said  
"Yeah… I know… But even though we're like in an apocalypse setting, you still can't skip the mushy part." Jasmine said

Phil laughed softly and said, "Okay… So, the kiss meant I like you and I want you to be my lady."

"Wasn't quite what I expected but since you're injured, I'll let it slide." Jasmine said

Phil smiled before saying, "So… Did you guys find out who Bradley was frightened of?"

"Yeah, we did. Donald Hager is his name. We found his tent and most of my family and my photos in it." Jasmine said  
"Donald… I know that creep. If I see him again, I am going to slice his head off with my machete." Phil said  
"Whoa, relax Mr Brooks. Let me shoot him first before you do your bit." Jasmine said

Phil smiled as he looked at Jasmine. She smiled back before letting out a gasp.

"I got to change your bandages." Jasmine said

Phil cocked an eyebrow, "You've been taking advantage of me when I was unconscious?"

Jasmine laughed and shook her head as she let his hand go while she walked over to get the clean bandages. She returned to his side and put the clean ones on the bed before undoing the bandages around Phil. While she patiently and attentively did the change, Phil couldn't help but watch her as she did it. He smiled as he watched her eyebrows knit together when she was wrapping the clean bandage around him. After she was done, she picked up his dirty bandages and threw them into the bin.

"Are you hungry?" Jasmine asked  
"A little." Phil replied  
"Do you want me to go get you something to eat?" Jasmine asked  
"How about we both go out?" Phil said  
"Are you sure you're fit enough to go out?" Jasmine said

Phil nodded, "I'm not a girl. I can take it."

"Excuse me?" Jasmine said, an eyebrow raised.

Phil smiled and said, "I mean I'm not like a weak girl. You're different. You're tough."

Jasmine laughed slightly and shook her head as she found a t-shirt lying in a sports bag by the bed. Knowing Phil can't move as easily, she helped him to put on the shirt. After, she helped him up and the two of them held hands as they left his trailer.

* * *

Seeing the sun about to set, Jasmine figured that it must be around 5 something coming to 6 in the evening. The campfire had been set up and there were people gathered around, ready for dinner. Alicia was the first to spot the 2 of them and smiled as she leapt up from her seat.

"Welcome back, Phil! Glad to see you're awake!" Alicia said  
"Glad to be awake too." Phil replied

Everyone turned around and stood up as Phil approached the camp fire, with Jasmine by his side.

"Good to have you back, Phil." Paul aka Big Show said  
"You're not wasting any time huh, amigo?" Hunico said

Phil smiled as he squeezed Jasmine's hand lightly before saying, "You got that right, hombre."

Bradley ran up to him and gave him a hug on his uninjured side, "Thank you."

Phil pat Bradley's head with his free hand and said, "No problem, buddy."

"Phil, I'm real glad you're fine but are we gonna have this dinner or what?" Ezekiel asked

Everyone laughed at Ezekiel's impatience as Phil and Jasmine sat down next to Bradley around the camp fire. It had been a long time since everyone at dinner had a fun time. About an hour and a half later, everyone either fell asleep by the camp fire or went back to their tents. Most of those who were drinking got wasted and passed out by the camp fire.

"We should get you back. I don't think you want to join the wasted bunch, right?" Jasmine asked, looking at Hunico and the other guys.

Phil shook his head, "No way."

Jasmine laughed a little as she helped Phil up.

She turned to Bradley, "You go with Alicia first, okay? I'll bring Phil back to his trailer."

Bradley gave an impish grin and said, "Jas, it's okay if you spend the night at Phil's trailer, you know."

Jasmine's face turned a little bright red as Alicia laughed at Bradley's remark. She heard a soft chuckle coming from Phil and turned to show him she wasn't amused.

"Just because you said that, I'm going to come back to the tent." Jasmine said  
"Nah… I think it would be best you stay with Phil for the night. It's been only a day since he got stabbed. He needs someone to look out for him in his trailer." Alicia said

She put her hands around Bradley's shoulder and said, "I'll take care of Bradley."

"Thanks. You have a good night, 'kay buddy?" Phil said

Bradley nodded and Jasmine leaned into give him a kiss on the head before Alicia smiled and brought him back to the tent.

"Shall we?" Phil asked

Jasmine laughed and shook her head, "Let's get you back to your trailer."

Phil nodded as she slowly helped him back to his trailer. She settled him onto the bed before looking at the working clock on his table.

"I'll need to change your bandage in another 3 hours. You should get some sleep." Jasmine said  
"Nah… I've slept enough." Phil said

He lightly pulled her hand and she sat down next to him.

"That's better. I was getting tired looking up at you." Phil said

Jasmine laughed, "You should really rest."

"I am resting." Phil said  
"I meant in a sleeping position. Your body doesn't get any rest if you're still sitting up." Jasmine said  
"Fine. I'll pretend to sleep." Phil said

Jasmine smiled as she helped him move nearer to the pillow. As soon as his body touched the bed and his head touched the pillow, Phil let out a soft, satisfied sigh.

"See… You'd rather be on your back then on your butt." Jasmine said  
"I hate to admit it but yeah… It's pretty comfortable. Why don't you join me?" Phil asked

Jasmine shook her head, "I've got to stay awake for another 3 hours to change your bandages."

"Screw the bandages. You need your sleep too." Phil said

Instead of giving Jasmine time to respond, Phil lightly yanked her hand and she fell back onto the bed, next to him.

"See? That wasn't so hard, right?" Phil said

Jasmine tried to protest but Phil hummed loudly, drowning out her words. She gave up as Phil held her close to him.

"You know… I never thought I'd fall in love with anyone especially when I've been living in this shithole for the past 2 months." Phil said  
"When did you know you fell in love with me?" Jasmine asked

Phil smiled, "When I rescued you from your house. Since then, I developed an overbearing need to care for you."

"Oh… So that's called falling in love with me?" Jasmine said  
"In my world, yeah. As you can see, I do not look like a romantic sort of guy." Phil said

Jasmine laughed a little before she felt her eyelids get heavy. Soon, her eyes closed and she fell asleep. Realizing she wasn't talking anymore, Phil looked at her and smiled when he saw her sleeping. He kissed her forehead and held her close to him with his good arm, before he too fell asleep.


	12. Here I Go Again

The next morning, Jasmine woke up to find Phil looking at her. She rubbed her eyes a little and put her glasses back on as she sat up.

"How long have you been staring at me?" Jasmine asked  
"A while… You were snoring pretty loudly." Phil replied  
"So you were staring at me because you couldn't go back to sleep or you were trying to figure out a way to silence my snores?" Jasmine asked  
"Neither. I just wanted to watch you while you sleep." Phil replied  
"That's a pretty creepy answer." Jasmine said  
"Is it? Or do you secretly like it but think it's weird to tell me so?" Phil said, grinning.  
"Just plain creepy." Jasmine said  
"Really? But I like watching you. And you've got to get used to it. You're mine now." Phil said

Jasmine laughed and shuddered, pretending to be grossed out by it. Phil merely laughed and leaned into kiss her.

"Oh! Wait! I've got to change your bandages!" Jasmine said

She wanted to get up when Phil held onto her hand, "I changed it when you were asleep."

"You changed it? By yourself?" Jasmine asked  
"Yeah. Just because I'm injured, it doesn't mean I can't do it myself." Phil replied

Jasmine made an unimpressed look, "Fine. You're Mr Macho."

Phil laughed a little and said, "Yes and admit that's why you fell for me."

Jasmine shook her head and laughed a little, unwilling to let Phil have his ego boost. He, on the other hand, leaned in closer and was about to kiss her when a knock sounded on the door. Phil let out a slightly frustrated sound before getting up, which made Jasmine chuckle.

"Yes?" Phil snapped, opening the door.

Standing there was none other than Alicia and Bradley.

"Well, someone is snappy." Alicia said

Phil changed the annoyed look to a smile and said, "Sorry. What brings you here so early?"

"It's breakfast time." Bradley said

Jasmine walked over to Phil and smiled, "And we're on our way out."

Phil turned around and whispered, "Were we?"

Jasmine laughed a little and shook her head as she moved Phil's arm out of the way so that she can walk out. But, before she did that, she kissed him on the cheek. Phil smiled as Jasmine put her hands on her little brother's shoulders and lead him towards the area where everyone was gathering around.

"So, did someone get some last night?" Alicia asked  
"Are you kidding me? I am injured." Phil replied  
"Well, I'd figure a person like you won't have found that a challenge." Alicia said  
"Very funny, Fox." Phil said

Alicia laughed as Phil walked ahead of her towards the camp area.

"Guys? We have some news." Paul said, as Phil and Alicia joined everyone at the breakfast area.

Phil sat down next to Jasmine slowly and whispered to her, "I still want my full on kiss."

Jasmine wanted to say something when Phil frowned a little and pointed at Paul; telling her to listen. He grinned before giving his full attention to Paul.

"So, what's the news?" Randy asked  
"We may just have hope!" AJ exclaimed  
"Hope? What are you talking about?" Rosa said

AJ smiled and pulled out a piece of paper from her back jeans pocket. She unfolded it and passed it to Bryan.

"We found this yesterday night on our way back from the raid." Bryan said, "This company is going to end this nightmare we're living in."

"What company?" Samantha asked  
"Nemeth Corporations. A Nicholas Nemeth is going to help all the survivors find shelter while they eradicate the problem." Ezekiel said  
"Can I take a look at that?" Jasmine asked

Bryan nodded and passed the paper to Jasmine. As soon as she saw the picture of Nicholas Nemeth, she instantly felt a headache come on. It was so strong that she stepped back and Phil stood up immediately.

"Jasmine?" Phil said, worriedly.

She tried to say something but the pain was too strong and before she knew it, she passed out.

"Oh my gosh!" AJ said  
"What happened?" Rosa said  
"Is she okay?" Hunico asked

Despite his injury, Phil scooped her up in his arms as he headed back to his trailer. Tamina, Bradley and Alicia followed after.

"Phil! You shouldn't be carrying Jasmine! You're still not healed!" Alicia said  
"I don't fucking care! She matters more." Phil said

Tamina helped to open the door and Phil put Jasmine down onto the bed.

"What's happening to Jasmine?" Bradley asked  
"It's okay, Bradley. She'll be fine." Alicia said, holding Bradley close to her.

As soon as he stood up, Phil felt a sharp pain in the place where he was injured.

"You're bleeding." Tamina said  
"Don't bother about me. Check her first!" Phil said

Tamina sighed, "I can't. She's gotta get up herself."

"What the hell are you saying?! She fucking fainted for no reason!" Phil exclaimed, wincing as he felt the pain.  
"Will you relax, Phil?! Look, Jasmine came to me for help in regaining a portion of her memories that were swiped clean. We went through a session of hypnosis and she managed to remember the name Nemeth." Tamina said  
"Nemeth?" Bradley spoke

Everyone looked at Bradley and he continued, "Nicholas Nemeth. That was Jasmine's fiancé. After she got into the car accident, he only came to see her once and after that, he didn't come anymore."

"That explains her memory missing." Tamina said, frowning a little.  
"Are you saying that you think the Nemeth guy has something to do with her memory missing?" Alicia asked  
"Jasmine suspected someone drugging her and I think it's true." Tamina replied  
"Tamina, patch me up. Alicia, go find out more from Bryan. Bradley, do you think you can help me out by hanging out here with me while we take care of your sister?" Phil asked

Bradley nodded as Alicia left the trailer and Tamina pulled a chair to sit opposite Phil as she picked up the medical supplies she left over to use them to patch Phil's wounds. As Tamina started to work on his injured area, Phil looked at Jasmine and hoped she'd wake up from whatever nightmare she was having.


	13. And I Remember

"_Nick? Nicholas honey? I'm here already. Hurry up or we'll be late for lunch!"_

Jasmine shook her head as she walked further into her fiancé's lab. She looked around and wondered why she hadn't seen all these lab equipment before. She walked further into the lab and realized that there was something new added to the room. A portion of the lab had been made into a room and the door had a huge partition which could be opened to see what's inside.

Since she was curious, she reached for the knob on the partition and pulled it to the left. It was a brightly lit room but she couldn't see anything inside. Just as she leaned in to look closely, a hideous, zombie-like creature appeared at the partition window, causing her to fall backwards into somebody.

She turned around and immediately stood up properly.

"_Nicholas! What's that?" She asked_

The platinum blonde hair boy smiled, "That's my new experiment."

"_Wh-What? You created that?" Jasmine said  
_"_No… I merely enhanced the person." Nicholas said_

Jasmine shook her head in disbelief, "Th-That's a person?"

"_Yes. Don't you recognize the eyes?" Nicholas said_

Jasmine looked at the pair of eyes, now staring at them through the partition window and almost instantly knew who it was.

She looked back at Nicholas, "What have you done?! That's Anthony!"

"_I know. Your best friend. He volunteered to help me with my experiment. So, I tried the new serum on him." Nicholas said  
_"_ARE YOU CRAZY?! He's like a zombie!" Jasmine exclaimed  
_"_All part of the plan, my love… I thought you'd understand." Nicholas said_

Jasmine stepped back from Nicholas, "No… I don't understand. Turning people into zombies? I'm sorry Nicholas. I really don't understand."

Not waiting for Nicholas to explain himself, Jasmine turned and walked out of the lab as she headed to the elevator. As the elevator arrived, she got in and before the door closed, she saw Nicholas standing in the hallway, smirking. Freaked out, Jasmine wanted nothing more than to get out of the building.

As she arrived at ground floor, she walked out of the building and down the steps, pass the employees making their way back from lunch. Seeing that there were no cars passing, she walked onto the road.

She almost made it to the opposite side when a passer-by yelled, "LOOK OUT!"

As Jasmine turned to look, a car sped her way and it hit her hard; flipping her onto the hood of the car before she rolled back onto the road. The driver of the car didn't stop to get out. In fact, he merely drove pass her after he hit her. The last thing Jasmine saw before she passed out was the face of the driver, who she knew.  


* * *

_She awoke in a strange room and remembered what had happened to her. In her hands held a small palm and she slowly turned to her left to see her little brother holding onto her hand. She lightly moved her hand, which caught the attention of her sleeping brother._

He woke up and smiled, "Jasmine! You're finally awake!"

"_H-How long have I been asleep?" Jasmine asked, her voice raw.  
_"_5 days. I thought you were never going to wake up." Her little brother replied_

As if right on cue, the door to her ward opened. And, in came the platinum blonde hair that she wished she'd never have met.

"_Jasmine! Baby! You're awake!" He said_

He looked at her little brother and said, "Bradley, go get the nurse and ask for some water, okay?"

Bradley nodded and hurried out of the ward. As soon as he was out of the ward, Nicholas moved to the door and closed it.

"_What are you doing here?" Jasmine said, "Get out!"_

"_Is that something you say to your fiancé who had been worried sick about you?" Nicholas_ asked  
"_You are not my __fiancé_! You were not worried sick about me! You were waiting to see if I have brain damage!" Jasmine said  
"_Sweetheart. I told Donald to hit you but I didn't know he'd hit you that hard." Nicholas said_

Tears threatened to leave Jasmine's eyes. She remembered the face of her assailant and as soon as Nicholas said his name. It fit.

"_Well… Since the hit couldn't do anything to you, I figured maybe this could." Nicholas said, taking out a syringe._

Jasmine tried to sit up to move away but realized that she couldn't since her one leg was broken and her right arm was broken. Nicholas forcefully took her left hand and aimed the syringe at the entrance of the drip on her arm.

"_Jasmine, honey… I really loved you. I was so looking forward to us getting married and having a family but you just had to disagree with me. Believe me, it pains me to do this to you but it's all about the greater good." Nicholas said, as he pushed down on the top of the syringe._

She tried to resist but since she had been in a coma, her strength were not at its fullest. As the fluid ran into her drip, Jasmine felt her eyelids getting heavy.

Nicholas leaned into kiss her lips and said, "I'll always love you."

No matter how hard she tried to stay awake, her eyelids kept defying her. Just as Nicholas smirked, she lost complete control of her eyes and fell into a deep slumber.


	14. New Plan

As if she'd been held underwater for a long time, Jasmine sprung awake as she sat up instantly. She looked to her right and sitting there was none other than Phil, who looked like he hasn't slept in days.

"Jasmine? Are you okay?" Phil asked

She looked at him and looked around before she collapsed onto Phil, hugging him as she felt tears roll down her cheeks. Phil didn't say anything but held her close to him as she cried. After a few minutes, Jasmine calmed down a little and he let her go but still held onto her hands.

"Hey, are you okay? What happened?" Phil asked

"I remember everything." Jasmine replied, "Its Nicholas. He did all this. He got Donald to hit me and because it didn't do much damage, he drugged me. I was in a drug induced coma for a year!"

Phil gritted his teeth, "Fucking son of a bitch. I'm going to tell the others about it."

As Phil moved to stand up, Jasmine held onto his hand.

"Wait. Please don't leave yet. I really need to be around something familiar. I don't want to fall back asleep." Jasmine said

Phil's expression softened as he sat back down. He leaned into kiss her on the lips as he stroked her cheek.

"You're not going to fall back asleep. I'm not letting another 3 days without kissing you slip past me." Phil said

Jasmine chuckled and said, "I was out that long, huh?"

"Yeah. And we're just on the kissing stage. Imagine how I'd be if we were on the sex stage. I'd be dying already." Phil said

Jasmine laughed and shook her head, "Horny even when there are walkers around."

Phil grinned and shrugged, "I can't help it."

"How's your injury?" Jasmine said  
"Getting better. It's healing." Phil said  
"Where's Bradley?" Jasmine asked

"With Alicia and Tamina. After you fell asleep, he started to get scared. He was afraid you'd slip into another coma." Phil replied, "So they had to bring him away from here."

"So… You've been by my side the whole time?" Jasmine asked  
"Yeah. I've been using your body as my table whenever I eat." Phil joked

Jasmine lightly punched his arm and said, "You know what? I'm feeling a lot better now. You can go tell the others already. I'm sure I won't fall back asleep cause I won't want to be someone's table!"

Phil laughed and held Jasmine close to him as he said, "I love you."

She moved out of his arms and looked at him, "What?"

"Ever since I met you, you're all I think about. I knew there and then that I would die for you if I had to. These past 3 days was all the time I needed to think about how I feel. And, I know I told you I'm not into that mushy stuff but I thought I should let you know." Phil said

Jasmine looked at Phil, unsure of what to say.

"If you don't feel the same way, that's fine. But at least I got it out of my chest." Phil said

She slowly broke into a smile and said, "Well, I think I love you."

Phil looked at Jasmine and raised his eyebrow, "Think? Well, I could live with that. Although I'd much rather do away with it."

Jasmine couldn't help but laugh as Phil wiggled his eyebrows at her.

"Fine, fine. I love you too." Jasmine said

Phil smiled and leaned into kiss her before they both cuddled on the bed, enjoying each other's company as they looked forward to the next day.

* * *

The next morning, Jasmine headed over to Alicia's tent and as soon as she peered into the tent, a boy collided into her, nearly knocking off her feet.

"Jasmine! I was so scared you left me alone again!"

She chuckled as she held her little brother close to her, "I promised you I wasn't going anywhere and that includes going back into a coma."

They hugged for a little while before Alicia interrupted.

"Glad to see you're back!" Alicia said  
"Thanks. It's good to be back." Jasmine said  
"All ready to find that jerk?" Alicia said  
"Ever ready." Jasmine said

Together, they made their way out to the breakfast area where everyone was seated. All of them beamed when they saw Jasmine, delighted that she's okay.

"Jasmine!" Alanna exclaimed

She smiled as she picked Alanna up, "Hey there."

"For you." Alanna said, putting a flower into Jasmine's hair.  
"Why, thank you." Jasmine said

Alanna gave her a quick hug before Jasmine put her down.

"How are you feeling?" Tamina asked  
"Good as new. Refreshed actually." Jasmine replied  
"You sure you're feeling good, mi-ha?" Rosa said  
"Yes, Rosa." Jasmine said  
"Good cause we are gonna need our fighting senorita back." Hunico said  
"Thanks for asking how I am, Hunico." Jasmine said

Hunico smiled and so did Jasmine. For once, she felt like this was her family and there was nothing out there that threatened their survival.

Samantha hugged Jasmine, "I'm so glad you're okay."

Jasmine smiled and patted Samantha's back, "Me too."

Samantha let her go after a while before she went back to her seat.

"Now that everyone's here. We should probably tell you what's going to happen." Paul said  
"We're going to find Nicholas Nemeth." Phil said  
"That son of a bitch hurt one of us and we're going to find him." Bryan said  
"Do you know where he's at?" AJ asked  
"Yes. We do. Turns out, the message on that piece of paper you found, was a code. Zeke managed to find out what it says." Randy replied  
"So… What does it say? Where do we find him?" Samantha asked

Ezekiel stood up and joined the others in the center, "Nemeth Corporations."

"The one in downtown Miami?" Alicia said  
"Yup." Ezekiel said  
"Figures. The one place he feels most in control. Donald's probably with him." Jasmine said  
"Well that makes two people that would be a joy to kill." Paul said

Bryan looked at everyone, "So… Are we all in agreement?"

Everyone nodded and were soon dismissed to pack up since they were leaving tomorrow morning.


	15. Rash Decisions

Evening came, and everyone was about done with their packing.

"Bradley, just stay in Phil's trailer, okay? I'll do the packing." Jasmine said  
"But, I want to help." Bradley said

Phil stopped moving stuff around and said, "Buddy, you're already helping."

"Really?" Bradley asked  
"Yeah. By staying here, you can tell me what I missed out." Phil replied

Bradley smiled, "Alright. I'll stay here."

Jasmine smiled at Phil before she headed out to help pack Alicia's stuff into the trailer.

"Are we all done here?" Jasmine asked  
"Yeah. This is the last of it." Alicia replied  
"Missing anything else?" Jasmine said

Alicia smiled and passed Jasmine her bow and arrows, "You nearly forgot this."

"Thanks." Jasmine said

The two girls headed out of the tent just as Tamina came out of her tent.

"That's the last of your stuff, Tamina?" Alicia asked  
"Yup. All that I want to keep." Tamina replied

The three girls walked together and as they neared Phil's trailer, they heard a loud, high-pitched scream. They turned around as did everyone else and as if whoever screamed was an alarm of some sort… They came. They were much different from the other walkers. They moved much faster then the ordinary walkers.

The door to Phil's trailer swung open and Bradley yelled, "Hurry up! RUN!"

Tamina and Alicia turned back to run while Jasmine stood rooted to the spot as she saw a familiar pair of eyes. The newly mutated walker she was staring at turned from his original route and towards her. Before she knew it, she felt someone lifting her off her feet and onto his shoulders as they headed towards Phil's trailer. The door to the trailer locked just in time as the mutated walker gained speed and hit the door with utmost force. Jasmine fell onto the person and when she looked up, she realized it was Phil.

"Bryan, we've gotta go. Now!" Phil yelled

As soon as he heard the instructions come out of Phil's mouth, Bryan stepped on the gas pedal as if his life depended on it. As they sped away, Jasmine remembered the pair of eyes. She wouldn't mistake them in a million years. It was her best friend, Anthony. Tears welled up in her eyes as the image of a non-zombified Anthony came into her mind.

Phil cupped her face, "Are you okay?"

Jasmine wiped away the tears with the back of her hand and nodded, "Yeah. Thanks for saving me… Again."

"Hey, it's my job to save the woman I love, right?" Phil said, with a grin.

Jasmine smiled and kissed Phil on the lips before she got off him. She stood up and turned around to look at the Tamina and Alicia who were sitting on the sofa, a little stunned.

"You two okay?" Jasmine asked  
"Yeah… Alicia?" Tamina asked, looking at Alicia, who had a stunned look on her face.

Alicia nodded slowly just as Tamina nudged her a little.

"What the fuck was that?!" Alicia exclaimed, snapping out of her trance, "Why the fuck are they walking so fast?! And how did they end up at our campsite?!"

"I don't know… But my guess? Nicholas must have done some improvements to the serum he created and sent it to us as a present." Jasmine said  
"What do you mean?" Tamina asked  
"Donald must have told him I'm alive and since there was a way for me to recover my memories, he wouldn't want any loose ends, right?" Jasmine said  
"Fucking bastard. I'm really going to enjoy killing him." Phil muttered  
"So, if he has those walkers at his control, does it mean he has more at Nemeth Corporations?" Alicia said  
"No doubting it." Jasmine said  
"How are we going to get in then?" AJ asked from the front seat that's next to Bryan.  
"If they are humans, we knock them out cold. If they are walkers, we'll fucking kill them all." Bryan said, gripping the wheel tight.

Tamina stood up, "Okay, whoa. Everyone needs to calm down."

Bryan stepped hard on the brake, causing everyone to momentarily lose balance.

He stood up from his seat and turned around, "What do you mean calm down? That fucking bastard sent the walkers after us! AJ nearly died! If I wasn't there to save her, she'd be dead!"

AJ stood up and lightly touched Bryan's arm, "Relax, Bryan."

"First of all, calm down meant thinking of a plan. We can't just go barging in. We still have 2 kids under our care, for goodness' sake! Do you want them to be a part of your suicide mission?" Tamina said  
"Tamina's right. We can't risk that." Jasmine said

Bryan looked at Jasmine, "This is all your fault. We shouldn't have saved you. We shouldn't have brought you back to camp. You're the cause of all this."

Phil stood next to Jasmine, holding her hand, "Back the fuck off, Bryan."

"No! I won't! If we didn't bring her back to camp, we won't be running from those fucking mutated walkers! This is all her fault! She brought this to us!" Bryan exclaimed

He looked back at Jasmine, "I say we just drop her off at Nemeth Corporations and drive away."

Before anyone could react to what Bryan said, Phil delivered a hard punch to the right side of Bryan's face, knocking him off his feet and onto the floor. AJ covered her mouth in shock as she kneeled down next to Bryan who was bleeding from a busted lip.

"Fuck you, Danielson." Phil said

By this time, the other cars carrying the others had stopped. And thankfully, they were on an open road, with eyes on the forests nearby.

Phil grabbed Jasmine's hand and stormed out off the trailer. As soon as they stepped out, they saw Randy walking towards them.

"What happened?" Randy asked  
"Not now, Orton." Phil replied

Randy looked at Phil's left hand and sighed heavily before entering the trailer. Jasmine looked at Phil before bringing him to the back of the trailer.

"Sit." She said, forcing Phil to sit on the little ledge thing that the trailer had.

She picked up his left hand and looked at the bruising near the knuckles that were covered by Bryan's blood. She sighed before knocking on the glass window of the trailer. Her brother opened it and popped his head out.

"Is everything okay?" Bradley asked, worriedly.

Jasmine managed a small smile, "Everything's fine, Bradley. Could you help me get some water?"

Bradley nodded and disappeared from the window for a while before reappearing seconds later with a bottle of water.

He passed it to Jasmine and whispered, "Is Phil going to be okay?"

"Give him some time." Jasmine said

Bradley nodded and disappeared from the window. Jasmine unscrewed the top of the bottle of water before looking at Phil.

"Are you going to be okay?" Jasmine asked

His jaw tightened, "No. I can shoot that son of a bitch."

She didn't reply but sat down next to him and took his bruised hand in her lap. She proceeded to wash Bryan's blood off his knuckles to reveal the bruising around it.

"You seriously want to kill your friend just because he said something in the heat of the moment?" Jasmine asked

Phil looked at Jasmine, "He looked like he meant it."

"Well, maybe he did. But I don't blame him. He's right. If you never rescued me, this wouldn't have happened." Jasmine said  
"How can you say that? You didn't know what was going on. You didn't know that fucking Nemeth guy was out to kill you. You're not to blame for this mess." Phil said

Jasmine smiled a little as she touched Phil's cheek, "You look really cute when you're angry."

"Not the point." Phil said

He meant to keep a straight face but ended up smiling. Just as she was examining his bruise, Bryan joined them.

She stood up, "I'll leave you two to it."

Phil held onto her hand, "No. Stay. Anything he has to say, he says it in front of the both of us."

Bryan looked at Jasmine with guilt and said, "Phil's right. Please stay. I need to apologize to you about what I said just now."

"No… It's fine. I know how you feel." Jasmine said, "You're right. If you guys didn't rescue me, maybe those walkers would have never bothered you."

Phil looked at her, "Stop saying that."

"Yeah. Please don't say that. What I said earlier was just my frustration and anger towards that Nemeth guy, talking. I really didn't mean what I said to you. I'm sorry for saying those things. I really should have kept my fucking cool." Bryan said

He looked at Phil, "Thanks for punching me back to my senses, Brooks."

Jasmine was a little unsure of how Phil would react but when she saw him crack a smile, all her doubts were erased.

"Anytime you're being a bastard, Danielson, I'll be there to punch you back to normal." Phil said

Bryan smiled back, "I'm counting on it."

Phil looked at Bryan's injury, "Tamina stitched it, huh?"

"You did bust open my lip." Bryan said

Phil laughed a little, embarrassed by how hard he delivered the punch to Bryan.

"So, am I forgiven?" Bryan asked Jasmine

She laughed slightly and said, "I never blamed you in the first place."

He gave her a grateful smile just as Paul appeared.

"I heard what happened." Paul said  
"Yes, I was a fucking dick and I already apologized." Bryan said

Paul looked a little surprised but said, "Wasn't going to say anything about that but since you mentioned it, I'm glad you admitted you're a dick and that you apologized."

Bryan gave Paul a slightly annoyed look before Paul continued, "Anyway… I think everyone wants to know how we're going to go about doing this break-in to Nemeth Corporations."

"I think I should go in alone." Jasmine said

The 3 guys looked at her as she continued, "He wants me. I'm the reason he's going through all this trouble. I'll go in alone."

"No fucking way. Not over my fucking dead body." Phil said

Jasmine looked at Phil, "It's the only way I know for sure that nobody's going to get hurt."

Paul shook his head, "We can't let you do that. You're going to get yourself killed!"

"It's a risk I'm willing to take." Jasmine said  
"Jas, I honestly think you should reconsider. Nemeth is dangerous. He's already created mutated walkers. Who knows what else he's capable of!" Bryan said  
"If anything happens to me, at least I'll know you guys will be safe." Jasmine said

Phil stood up and exclaimed, "Fuck this! I'm not letting you go in there alone!"

Before she could say anything else, Phil stormed off back into the trailer.


	16. My Choice

Night fell and since it was too dark to continue driving, everyone stayed in their vehicles just in case they needed to make a quick getaway should the walkers appear. Phil had closed the door to the area with the bed and everyone just sat outside. After what happened earlier, things had gotten awkward. Jasmine sat at the front passenger seat while the others were playing card games, and Bradley slept.

"Go talk to her." AJ said to Bryan

He looked at her and whispered, "How? I don't know what to say!"

"Can't you tell her something to change her mind?" AJ asked  
"What? Even Phil couldn't change her mind. Just look at where he is now." Bryan said

The four of them looked at the door which was still shut and Tamina said, "Don't we have a plan to ensure that she won't exactly be alone in this?"

"Paul's thinking of something. But, if we don't know how Nemeth's security is like, it's hard to think of an exit strategy for Jasmine." Bryan said

Alicia put down her cards and stood up, "I'll end your misery. I'll go talk to her."

She walked over to the driver's seat and sat down, facing Jasmine.

"Hey." Alicia said

Jasmine looked at her, "Hey."

"You okay?" Alicia asked  
"Yeah… I think so. But, I pissed Phil off." Jasmine replied  
"I don't think you pissed him off. It's more like he's pissed with himself." Alicia said  
"What do you mean?" Jasmine asked  
"Phil's pissed that he can't think of anything to keep the person he loves safe. He knows that if he lets you go in alone, he's not going to be able to keep the promise he made to Bradley." Alicia replied  
"But at least he'll be able to take care of Bradley… Should anything happen to me." Jasmine said  
"I think that's exactly what he's trying to avoid. He doesn't want anything to happen to you." Alicia said

Jasmine sighed, "I know… But, going in alone is the only option. Nemeth doesn't have any problem with any of you. I'm the one he wants."

"You're the one Phil wants too and he doesn't want to lose you this way." Alicia said

She looked at the door before looking back at Jasmine, "You should go talk to him."

Jasmine looked at the door and sighed, "I should…"

She got up from her seat and padded over to the door, as the others watched.

Jasmine lightly knocked on the door, "Phil?"

She waited for about 5 seconds until the door knob turned and the door cracked open a little.

Jasmine took it as a sign and went in, closing the door behind her.

"Phil… I know you're pissed with me." Jasmine said  
"You're damn fucking right." Phil said, not looking at her.

She sighed and sat on the bed where he was. Jasmine lightly touched his face but as soon as her hand made contact with his face, he held onto it and removed it from the side of his face.

He looked at her, "Don't. If you touch me one more time, I would be tempted to take you on this bed with utmost roughness so that you won't be able to move at all while I tie you up."

"Phil…" Jasmine said softly.  
"Just don't." Phil muttered

Jasmine stood up, "Phil, if you keep doing this, I can't properly say I'm sorry for coming up with this decision."

He looked at her, "I don't want you to say you're sorry. I just don't want you to go!"

"I know… But I don't want to drag all of you into this. Nicholas is crazy. It's dangerous for all of you to go with me." Jasmine said  
"Well, it's dangerous for you to go in alone." Phil said  
"Phil… I don't want to repeat myself." Jasmine said  
"And I don't intend for you to do that. I'm going in with you." Phil said, determined.

Jasmine sighed, "I can't let you risk your life."

He stood up, "You can if you love me."

"Phil… Why are you making this difficult for me?" Jasmine asked  
"Because I don't want to lose you without putting up a fight." Phil replied

She looked at him and sighed. She was about to continue when Phil stopped her.

He shook his head, "No. Let me finish. I'm going in with you whether you like it or not. You're not going to have a say."

"But what about Bradley? Who's going to take care of him if the both of us are going in?" Jasmine asked  
"There are plenty of help around." Phil said  
"What if we both don't come out alive? What then?" Jasmine asked

Phil looked at her, "That's not going to happen because no matter what, I'm going to make sure you survive."

She looked at Phil, unsure of what to say or do. In the beginning, it was just her life that she had to worry about. Now, she had another life on her hands, one that she didn't want to lose because of her actions.

"Phil…" Jasmine said

He pulled her into a hug and said, "You can't talk me out of this. It's my life, it's my choice. I don't want to lose the one thing I love and care so much about without fighting for it. Don't fight with me on this, okay?"

Not being able to argue with that, she just hugged him tighter, trying her hardest to fight the fear of losing him.


	17. We're Doing This Together

The next morning, Jasmine woke up early to get some fresh air to clear her head. She was sitting on the railing that split the huge free way into two sides. She was thinking of how to get into Nemeth Corporations when she heard footsteps behind her. She turned just as her little brother reached her and pushed himself up to sit on the railing.

"Hey… You're up early." Jasmine said

Bradley looked at her, "You too."

She merely gave him a small smile as she reached over to put her arm around him.

"You're going in, aren't you?" Bradley said  
"Yeah… I have to end this madness once and for all." Jasmine said  
"But, it isn't your duty." Bradley said  
"I know… But I had a chance to stop him. To stop Nicholas from doing all of this." Jasmine said, looking at the empty freeway.

Bradley looked too before saying, "This isn't your fault. You didn't even have a chance to tell on him when he made that accident for you."

Jasmine couldn't say anything but held her little brother tighter.

"Is Phil going with you?" Bradley asked

Jasmine sighed, "Yeah…"

"But you're not going to let him do that." Bradley said

She looked at him, "How do you know?"

He chuckled lightly, "You're my sister. I know you'll want him to stay behind to look after me. Besides, that could be the only real reason why you're up so early."

Jasmine smiled as she messed her brother's hair but her smile soon faded as her mind clouded with fear on leaving her brother.

"Don't worry about me, Jas. There are lots of people here to take care of me. I'll be fine." Bradley said

She smiled, "Someone's a grown man, huh?"

Bradley smiled back proudly, "That's because you're my sister."

She smiled even though she felt the tears clouding her vision. She pulled her little brother in for a hug before kissing the top of his head.

"Promise me that you'll keep yourself safe, okay? Don't stray from the others." Jasmine said

Bradley hugged Jasmine tight as he nodded.

"And promise me that if I don't come back, you'll listen to Alicia and Tamina and grow up well?" Jasmine said

She felt the front of her shirt start to get a little wet and she knew that her brother was crying. She felt her own tears leave her eyes as she hugged him tighter than before.

"I love you, lil' bro." Jasmine said

Bradley sniffed and let out a soft whimper as he said, "I love you too, big sis."

She let him go and wiped her tears away from her face with the back of her hand before using her thumbs to clean away her little brother's tears.

He looked at her, "Promise me that you'll come back."

She nodded, "I'll try."

It wasn't much of a promise but that was all Jasmine could agree to. She wasn't sure how Nicholas was now and if she didn't make it out alive, she would have broken the promise she made to Bradley. The two of them walked in silence back to the trailer where Alicia, Tamina and Paul were waiting for them.

"Hey guys… Thanks for waking up so early." Jasmine said  
"Don't mention it. Are you sure you want to do this?" Tamina asked

Jasmine took in a breath and said, "Yeah."

"You're really going to just leave without telling Phil?" Alicia asked  
"I have to. I'm not going to let him do this." Jasmine replied

She looked at Paul, "Is the truck ready?"

"Yeah. I put in some food supplies and other stuff you may need." Paul said

Jasmine smiled gratefully, "Thanks Paul. For everything."

He shook his head, "Don't mention it. You were a great asset to our scavenging team and it's my pleasure giving you my truck."

She smiled as she saw the big man sniffle a little.

"Get over here and give me a hug." Paul said

Jasmine smiled and let her brother's hand go as she closed the gap between her and Paul with a hug.

"Stay safe, okay?" Paul said

Jasmine nodded just as Paul squeezed her a little tighter before letting her go. She looked at Tamina and smiled giving her a hug.

"Take care, okay? Kill that son of a bitch." Tamina said

Jasmine nodded, "I'll do my best."

She broke the hug with Tamina before looking at Alicia.

"Please take care of Bradley for me?" Jasmine asked

Alicia shook her head, "You don't even have to ask."

Jasmine smiled and hugged Alicia, "Thank you."

"Don't mention it. Stay alive, okay? I am only temporarily taking care of Bradley for you while you're gone for a while." Alicia said

Jasmine let Alicia go and said, "I will try."

She looked at her friends and her little brother before saying, "I better go… Before everyone else wakes up and it will be hard to leave without Phil."

They nodded as Alicia passed Jasmine her bow and arrows. She smiled and took in a breath as she bid her friends and brother good-bye. They waved good-bye and watched as she walked quietly to the front of the line of cars where Paul's truck was.

Not looking back, Jasmine opened the door to the driver's seat to see Phil sitting there.

"Wha—Phil! What are you doing here?!" Jasmine said

He had a really pissed off look on his face as he gritted his teeth, saying, "Get in the fucking car."

Sensing that Phil wasn't open to any discussion, Jasmine hurriedly made her way to the front passenger side of the car and got in. As soon as she closed the door, Phil stepped on the gas pedal and they sped off down the freeway.

Due to the speed Phil had put the truck into, they were a distance away from the others in a matter of minutes.

"Phil. Slow down. You're going to get us killed." Jasmine said, calmly.

She waited for a few seconds to hear Phil's response but he didn't answer her at all. She looked at him but his eyes just stayed on the road, looking like he was driving at high speed with intention to kill.

"Phil. Did you hear what I just said? You have got to slow down." Jasmine said

Not getting a response again made Jasmine annoyed. She was about to reach for Phil's hand on the wheel when he swerved and stopped abruptly, lifting his foot off the gas pedal and braking instead. The two of them both jerked to a stop in the middle of the empty freeway.

"What is wrong with you?! You nearly got us both killed!" Jasmine exclaimed  
"At least it's better than letting you kill yourself." Phil said, still not looking at her.

Jasmine looked at him and realized that her plan had been foiled all along. Phil knew all along that she would try to go without him one way or another.

"You knew." Jasmine said

He looked at her angrily, "Of course I knew!"

"I pretended to sleep because I knew you were going to pull a trick like this." Phil said, "I knew you were determined to go without me."

He turned to face her, "But you don't make the fucking decisions for me, Jasmine. It's my fucking choice! If I choose to die for you, I can jolly well do so!"

She swallowed the invisible lump that had formed in her throat as she steadied her breathing. She didn't want to break down. This wasn't the time to do so. Phil saw the wet spots around her eyes and instantly felt like taking back his tone.

He sighed, "Why won't you understand that I'm doing all of this because I refuse to lose you just like that?"

Jasmine tried to hold back the tears but they were not listening to her.

"You think I don't know what you're trying to do? You think I don't know how you feel?" Jasmine said

She cleaned the tear that escaped down her cheeks and continued, "I'm doing what I can to stop you because I don't want to lose you either. I didn't want to think about what could go wrong if the both of us were in there together. This is my fight, Phil."

He held her cheek, "That's where you're wrong. This isn't just your fight, Jas. This is my fight too. Nemeth fucked up my life and fucked up your life. In my book, that's crossing my line."

"We're in this together now and I'll promise you that no matter what happens inside, we'll both come out alive, okay?" Phil said

Jasmine looked at the determination in Phil's eyes and nodded. He smiled and kissed her on the lips before turning back to face the road. He shifted the car back into gear and readied his foot on the gas pedal.

"Let's go find that motherfucker, shall we?" Phil said

Jasmine nodded and he stepped on the gas pedal, resuming their trip down the freeway towards Miami, Florida.

* * *

"So, have they been wiped out?"  
"Um…"

Nicholas turned around and looked at his best friend, Donald. His wide smile suddenly turning into a scowl.

"Why the 'um'?" Nicholas asked  
"The campsite has been swept clean but they escaped." Donald said

Nicholas crushed the can in his hand and muttered, "You idiot."

"I'm sorry, Nicholas. But I did manage to find out where they're going." Donald said

Nicholas looked at Donald with a unimpressed look, waiting for him to continue.

"They're heading here." Donald said

A smile slowly crept onto Nicholas' face.

He looked at Donald, "Ready our employees. I do believe we'll be expecting our guests anytime."

Donald nodded and hurried out to relay the instructions. As soon as the door closed behind him, Nicholas walked over to the glass door and smiled.

"Isn't this exciting? You'll have your family reunion very soon."


	18. Trapped

**Author's Note: Hello all my readers and followers! Sorry about this being a pretty short chapter! I do have to thank each and everyone of you for giving me reviews and reading my story! You have no idea how much all of your feedback mean to a closet writer like me!**** Nonetheless, ONWARD WITH THE STORY! :D**

As night fell, Phil and Jasmine pulled up at an abandoned motel not too far from Miami.

"Do we go in?" She asked, looking at the dingy motel.  
"We could always snuggle in the car. That's pretty romantic." Phil replied

Jasmine narrowed her eyes at Phil before opening the door of the car. She climbed out and looked around just as Phil got out.

"Home sweet home." Phil said, with his hands on his hips.  
"For the night." Jasmine said, standing next to him.

Phil chuckled at Jasmine's slight discomfort with the place before holding her hand as they walked towards the entrance. The pair stepped in and Phil tried to turn on the lights. But, as expected, the lights were not working.

As they looked around the reception area with the aid of the moonlight, they could see newspapers strewn around along with magazines. Jasmine spotted the board that hung all the keys and picked up a random pair of keys.

"All checked in, honey?" Phil asked

Jasmine chuckled, "Yup. Room 20."

The two of them made their way towards their new found humble abode for the night and unlocked the door to room 20. Stepping in, the room seemed different from its exterior. Everything inside looked brand new or at least much cleaner than what they've seen for a while.

Walking into the bathroom, Jasmine tried her luck with the shower. With hope in her heart, she flipped the tap on but to her disappointment, a few drops of water leaked out before it completely stopped.

"Hoping for a hot shower?" Phil asked, leaning against the door frame.  
"A girl can hope, right?" Jasmine replied

The two of them placed their weapons by the bed side before climbing into bed together. Phil held her close to him as they looked at each other through the moonlight.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you today…" Phil said  
"I'm sorry for being so stubborn." Jasmine said

He gave a small smile, "Yeah… You can be pretty stubborn."

"And you can be quite a yeller." Jasmine said

Phil laughed as he hugged her close to him, "That's because the woman I love the most tends to make me into one."

Jasmine smiled into Phil's shirt just as she took in his scent. The two of them were enjoying each other's company so much that they didn't even know they fell asleep.

* * *

It was somewhere in the middle of the night when a slightly loud but low boom was heard, not far from where Phil and Jasmine were. The two of them woke with a start; Phil holding Jasmine tight to him.

"What was that?" Jasmine asked in a hushed voice  
"I don't know." Phil replied

The boom was heard again and the two of them sat up together, freezing on the spot to hear the next sound. As soon as they heard the boom again, they reached over to their weapons and held it; ready to shoot and kill any moment.

Phil looked at Jasmine and signaled for her to follow him towards the door. She nodded and followed behind him as they stepped slowly towards the door. The two of them lined up on both the left and right side of the door frame. Phil looked at her and put up his fingers to count '1, 2, 3'. As soon as he got to '3', Jasmine opened the door and Phil rushed out with his shotgun in hand. She rushed out after him with her bow ready. But before she could get her sight adjusted, she felt a hand cover her mouth with a cloth, muffling her protest as her eyelids started to get heavy.

The last thing she saw was Phil getting knocked out just as her eyes closed on her.


	19. Can't Go Back

Jasmine woke up in a brightly lit room, far different from where she was previously. She got up and looked around, seemingly able to recognize the decoration of the room. She looked ahead of her and saw an unconscious Phil in a chair, with his wrists strapped to the arm rests.

"Phil." Jasmine said softly.

She tried to get up from where she sat but fell back onto the bed.

"You shouldn't get up."

Jasmine looked around the room to try and find the person who spoke to her.

"Wh-Who's there?" Jasmine said

The person stood out from the shadows and immediately, she recognized him. Nicholas' younger brother.

"Ryan?" Jasmine said

He smiled a little, "You remember me."

"Of course I do. Nicholas' serum is no match for my memories." Jasmine said

Ryan chuckled, "Feisty Jasmine as always."

"Ryan, where are we? How come I can't stand up right?" Jasmine asked  
"You're in Nicholas' room. He got Donald and his other men to station themselves at the motel outside of Miami. He knew you'd rest there." Ryan replied  
"What?" Jasmine said  
"He was expecting you." Ryan said

He looked at Phil, "But, Nicholas wasn't expecting him so they knocked him out."

Ryan looked back at Jasmine, "They used some new and improved form of chloroform on you that would render you unable to move your lower body for a few hours after you regain consciousness. He put me here to keep an eye on you."

"Then you can let us go, right?" Jasmine said

Ryan shook his head, "I can't do that. Nicholas would turn me. I don't want to be turned."

For a moment, the Ryan that Jasmine knew became someone she didn't recognized. He got all jittery and twitchy as he stepped back hastily, trying his hardest to get back into the shadowed area.

Jasmine tried again to get up; this time, getting off the bed. Feeling her legs start to give way again, she held onto the frame of the bed to prop herself up.

Ryan wanted to go up to help her but it was as if something was holding him back.

"Ryan, help me over to Phil." Jasmine said

He looked confused for a moment before shaking his head profusely, "I can't. I can't."

"Ryan… What happened to you?" Jasmine asked

He shook his head, "I can't help you. He's watching. He's always watching."

"Who is?" Jasmine asked  
"Nicholas." Ryan replied  
"Can he hear us?" Jasmine asked

Ryan smiled a little as he shook his head, "No. He's afraid the sound system might destroy the floor."

"The floor?" Jasmine said

Ryan looked down and almost immediately, stepped back to a shadowed area. Wanting to know what scared Ryan, Jasmine looked down at the floor and not being able to help herself from the shock, she let go of the frame and landed on the ground with a thud, which froze her to the spot.

Acting as the floor for the entire room was see through glass, which was thick enough to withstand weight but may be susceptible to vibrations from sound waves. Through the glass, she could see what frightened Ryan.

An endless amount of walkers were squeezing against each other, with their arms outstretched towards the glass floor. Towards the spot where Jasmine sat. Ryan fell onto the carpeted ground, hugging his knees to himself and started rocking back and forth in a daze.

Jasmine felt tears in her eyes as she looked down at the many walkers who were once normal human beings. Gaining strength from within, Jasmine dragged herself across the floor, trying her hardest to not look down as the walkers followed her every move.

She just about reached Phil when he slowly stirred.

Phil winced at the pain coming from behind his head. He tried moving but felt his arms in a restraint behind him. Just when he was about to look down, Jasmine stopped him.

"Don't." Jasmine said

He looked at Jasmine who was now beside him.

"Jas, are you okay? Where the hell are we?!" Phil said  
"Sssh. Try not to move so much. I'm going to untie your hands, okay? Just pretend that you can't move while I lean my head against your arm." Jasmine said

Phil nodded and did what she said as Jasmine used her right hand to untie the knots. When Phil felt the ropes getting looser, he shook the ropes away from his hands but still remained like he wasn't able to move.

"We're in Nicholas' room in Nemeth Corporations. He's got cameras covering every angle of the room but he is unable to hear us talk." Jasmine said  
"Why?" Phil asked  
"Look down." Jasmine replied

Phil peeked over his knees and in an instant, snapped back into his upright position.

"Fucking asshole." Phil said, gritting his teeth.  
"The only thing protecting this whole room from falling down to them is the absence of sound." Jasmine said  
"Is this his sick amusement?! I'm going to enjoy killing that fucker." Phil said

He looked at the cameras around the room before saying, "How do we get out of here?"

"Only you can get out of here. Nicholas used a new and improved version of chloroform on me that renders me unable to move my lower body for the next few hours. I can't run or walk. You should get out of here. Now." Jasmine said

Phil looked at Jasmine, "I'm not leaving you, remember? I said we're both coming out alive."

"But I can't move. I'm only going to slow you down." Jasmine said  
"Well, I don't fucking care. If you're not coming with me, I'm not going anywhere." Phil said

Jasmine looked at Phil and nodded. She looked at the carpeted area where Ryan was and called out to him.

"Ryan? Hey, Ryan?" Jasmine said

He looked up and blinked a couple of times in confusion before he stopped rocking.

"Y-Yeah?" Ryan said  
"We're going to get out of here, okay?" Jasmine said

Ryan panicked, "No! No! You can't! We-We can't! Nicholas would turn me! He would turn us all!"

"No, no, he won't. If you come with us, he won't turn you. I promise you. I won't let him touch you." Jasmine said

Ryan looked at Jasmine and the two of them seemed to have a telepathic agreement. He stood up and punched in a key code before the doors opened. In an instant, Phil scooped Jasmine up from the floor and ran towards the door. As soon as Ryan came out after them, the doors closed.

"The cameras would have seen us escaping by now. We don't have much time." Phil said

Jasmine looked at Ryan, "Where's the exit from this floor?"

"Uh… Straight ahead!" Ryan said

The three of them made their way towards the direction Ryan had given to them. As they were about to reach the entrance, something caught Jasmine's eye and she stopped Phil.

"Wait. Stop." Jasmine said  
"We don't have time, Jas." Phil said  
"Just wait." Jasmine said

She lightly pat his hands that were around her, "You can put me down."

Feeling her strength coming back to her lower body, when Phil put her down, she wobbled a little before gaining her footing.

She walked into the room that had caught her eye. There wasn't anything that was striking enough to have had caught her attention but something about the room pulled her towards it. Turning her head to the right, she saw a glass door which had 2 backs facing her. She walked closer to the door and as soon as she reached the door, the backs turned to face her.

"Jasmine?"  
"Mom! Dad!"

She leaned up towards the glass and put her hand flat on the door where her mother's hand was.

"You're alive! Is Bradley with you?" Her mother asked

Jasmine nodded as she felt tears start to well up in her eyes.

"Yes. He-He's fine. He's safe with my friends." Jasmine said  
"Good. I'm sorry, sweetheart. We should never have trusted him." Her father said

Her mother sighed, "He tricked us. We didn't know he had been going into your room to drug you. I'm so sorry, sweetie."

Jasmine shook her head, "Its fine, mom. You wouldn't have known. It's not your fault."

She turned back to Phil and Ryan, "We've got to get them out of here."

Ryan's face crumpled a little as he said, "We can't…"

"Why?" Jasmine snapped

Before Ryan could reply, her father spoke.

"It's too late." Her father said

Jasmine looked at her parents, "Too late? Too late for what?"

"I'm sorry, Jasmine… Nicholas has been feeding them the drug." Ryan said

Phil looked at Ryan, "What do you mean feeding them the drug? They've were force fed?!"

"In a way. The air that is inside these chambers is filled with the drug. If we open these doors, it will escape." Ryan said  
"Is this what he used to turn those walkers out there?" Phil asked, his words coated in disgust.

Ryan looked down, "Yes. Except, he used my formula to make it a faster process."

Jasmine looked at Ryan, "You helped him?"

He looked at Jasmine, fear emitting from him.

"I didn't have a choice! He already turned our parents into one of them when they refused to support his work. If I didn't give him the formula, he was going to turn me into them. I don't want to be one of them!" Ryan said

Phil grabbed his shirt and lifted him, pushing his back against the wall with a lot of force. Ryan cried out a little as his back collided against the wall.

"You selfish idiot! Do you know how many innocent lives you've taken just to keep yourself alive?! MILLIONS! And you're not even worth one of them!" Phil said

He lifted his free hand and closed it into a fist, ready to knock Ryan out when he felt Jasmine's hands pull back his arm.

"No. It's not his fault. Don't do it." Jasmine said

Feeling Phil's arm start to relax, Jasmine let go of his arm. But, to frighten Ryan, Phil punched hard into the wall. Frightened, Ryan fell to the floor, covering his ears.

Jasmine turned back around and looked around the glass chamber.

"Sweetie, don't bother looking for the switch. You should go. Just leave this place and never come back." Her mother said

Jasmine stopped and looked at her parents, "I can't. I'm not leaving here without you."

"Listen to your mother, sweetheart. It's too late for us now." Her father said

Jasmine started to cry, "I-I can't… I can't leave you…"

Her mother tried to smile despite the tears streaming down her face.

"You're not leaving us, sweetie. Remember what I said? We'll always be by your side, in your heart." Her mother said

Jasmine broke down as she turned around to stop herself from getting more upset.

Her father looked at Phil, "Take care of my daughter and my son."

"I will, sir." Phil said

Her father nodded as her mother said, "Treat her well. Always put her first before anything."

"Yes, ma'am. She's already more important than my life." Phil said

Her mother smiled, "I approve of this man."

Hearing her mother's words made Jasmine laugh a little despite her tears streaming down her face.

"Sweetie, turn around."

Listening to her mother, Jasmine turned around. Her mother looked at her and could only give her a small smile.

"Don't cry anymore, sweetie. Be strong for me and your dad, okay?" Her mother said

Jasmine nodded as Phil put his hands on her shoulder, offering a reassuring squeeze.

"Nicholas's men are going to come back any minute. You two better leave." Her father said

Jasmine reluctantly nodded as her hand remained on the glass, where her mother's hand was, on the other side.

"I love you." Jasmine said, looking at her parents.  
"We love you too, sweetheart." Her father said

Phil put in a little more strength as he pulled Jasmine away from the glass chamber. As he led her out of the place, she looked back to see her father comforting her mother who was crying into his shoulder as he pat her head. Jasmine felt the tears threaten to leave her eyes again but with the resounding words of her mother and father, she had no choice but to force herself to stop crying.


	20. Taunts That Hurt

The two of them got out and were making their way towards an exit when the lift doors opened. As soon as they saw Donald walk out with some guards behind him, Phil held Jasmine's hand and pulled her into the nearest door he saw.

Entering into the new room, the two of them made it a point to avoid cameras in the room. With eyes above, they slowly walked into the room until Jasmine felt her back hit a acrylic glass wall. She turned around and was shocked to see a decomposed face looking back at her. Jasmine looked at it, expecting it to move but it stayed still, staring at her with those dead eyes. Phil hurried over to her side just as she stepped back, noticing a hand just above the head.

The two of them looked from the head to the hand above and soon came to realize that there was more than just one.

Phil spotted a clipboard hanging by the side and picked it up to look at it. It read, 'Failed Subjects'. Jasmine looked at what Phil was reading and couldn't believe the things she read.

The clipboard documented everything that the so-called subjects went through. They were fed food that had been contaminated with some kind of virus that they thought could mutate and possibly change their thinking to that of a human again. They may have been walkers but they were still once humans and that made Jasmine couldn't believe that all along, Nicholas was experimenting with this.

"I can't believe this. Why would he do this to people?" Jasmine said  
"Some people just think they have all the power in the world and they can change the fate of others." Phil said

"Did you find them?"  
"No sir."  
"Have you guys checked this lab yet?"  
"No…"

Realizing that Donald must have been referring to the lab they are in, Phil took ahold of Jasmine's hand and led them further into the lab, hidden behind the lab table at the back of the room, since that was the only thing they could find just as Donald pushed open the door.

He walked in slowly, with 2 other people holding rifles in their hands behind him. Phil put his arm around Jasmine's back and they both huddled close and held their breath, just as Donald stepped further into the room.

"Sir… I don't think they are in here… This lab would have frighten them away." The guy with the cap said

Donald smirked, "I don't think so. They are here alright… I can smell the blood of that weakling I injured."

He looked around the room and walked around like a lion stalking his prey, "Hey Brooks… I know you're in here. I can smell the blood of your healed wound. You were such a man when you saved Bradley. Have I injured you and frightened you off from facing me?"

Jasmine felt Phil's hand curl into a fist and she put her hand on top of his. She didn't want Donald's taunting to get the better of Phil so she tried to stop him from getting worked up.

"Sir! Sir!"

Donald frowned and turned around, "What?"

"It's the new experiments, sir! They're turning!" He exclaimed

Donald smiled, "Are they? Nicholas is going to be so pleased."

He turned back to face the empty room and said, "Did you hear that, Jasmine? Your parents have joined the new breed of humans!"

Jasmine felt a wave of sadness and helplessness hit her as she now pictured her parents as Nicholas' walkers. She couldn't believe that just not more than 15 minutes ago, she was talking to them. Now, they probably wouldn't even recognize her. She felt Phil kiss the back of her head and she knew that it was his way of telling her to stay strong. Jasmine blinked away the tears and remained calm, hoping that Donald would get out of the lab quickly.

Figuring that he wasn't going to get any response, Donald turned to his men.

"I know they're in here somewhere. Keep this place in lockdown." Donald said, "Let's see how long they can stay in here."

His men nodded and with that said, he left the lab. Phil peeked over the top of the table and as soon as he saw them leave, they both relaxed a little.

Phil looked at Jasmine, "I'm sorry."

She shook her head, "It's not your fault. They knew it was going to happen to them. At least I got to talk to them before they turned into… Them."

Jasmine looked at Phil, "Thank you for not trying to be a hero again."

"This isn't high school so taunting doesn't work as much as it did back then." Phil said

She smiled a little and stood up, "So… How are we going to get out of here?"

"Let's find some kind of map or something… They'll lead us out." Phil said

He pointed at the cabinet drawers in the slight shadows, "I'll take that cabinet. You take the other one by the table. Don't make a sound and stay out of the cameras."

"Copy that." Jasmine said

As she was about to make her way to the other cabinet, she saw a door just to her right and it had a square partition window that was black on the other side. She recalled seeing a door like that last time and what was behind the door wasn't something pleasing to remember.

She walked closer till she was right in front of the door and seeing a switch next to the door, she flipped it on.

As soon as the lights came on, she heard a loud thud come from the other side of the door and a decomposed face appeared at the partition window. Jasmine jumped a little and stepped back with her eyes fixed on the face. She felt a sudden familiarity in the rotting face that was staring back at her and she stepped closer to confirm her suspicions.

"Anthony?" Jasmine called out

He may not have been human but she knew those eyes. It was him. He even seemed to show signs of recognizing Jasmine. She could see his eyes soften and she knew that somewhere within those decomposed flesh was the best friend she loved dearly.

"Anthony? I'm so sorry… I shouldn't have let you meet him. I'm sorry for doing this to you…" Jasmine said

She thought that he was understanding what she said but it turned out differently. Anthony cocked his head to one side and only looked at her with a creepy smile displayed on his face. Jasmine stepped back further, frightened by the sudden display of emotions he was showing.

Seeing him that way made her feet feel like it's rooted to the spot. She wasn't able to move from the sudden fright she was feeling.

All of a sudden, the lights switched off and she didn't see his face anymore. Jasmine felt her knees buckle and she collapsed into someone. She looked up to see Phil looking at her with utmost concern. She immediately wrapped her arms around him in a hug. He didn't say anything but responded with his arms wrapped around her tightly.


	21. Ryan's Redemption

**Author's Note: Hi everyone! Sorry for the lack of updates! Been pretty busy but here's the new chapter!**

Due to the heavy lock down that Donald ordered, Phil and Jasmine didn't have a choice but to stay in the lab while they thought of a way to escape. They sat at the corner, hidden from view, just in case anyone came in to find them.

Phil hugged Jasmine closer to him as night fell. Realizing that Jasmine wasn't talking, he loosened his hold on her to look at her.

"You okay?" Phil asked

Jasmine thought for a while before she shook her head, "No… I'm not okay."

She turned to Phil, "I can't help but feel that this is all my fault. Maybe if I hadn't run out on him, this wouldn't have happened. My best friend… My parents… He's doing all this because of me."

"I started all this… I made him what he is." Jasmine said

Before she could continue going on, Phil stopped her.

"Stop saying that. This isn't your fault. Nemeth had lost his mind way before the two of you got together. You've got nothing to do with it." Phil said

Jasmine closed her eyes as she felt the warmth of her tears welling up in her eyes. Phil cleaned away a tear that escaped before cupping her face so that she would look at him.

"This is all part of Nicholas' plan to make you lose hope. He's a fucking son of a bitch and we're going to bring him down if it's the last thing I do." Phil said  
"What if I've already lost hope?" Jasmine asked  
"Don't even think of it. As long as I'm around, I'm your hope." Phil replied

Jasmine smiled a little and Phil leaned into kiss her.

"And don't doubt that." He said, "All we have to do now is beat Nicholas at his own sick game."

"And I know how we can begin." Jasmine said

Phil looked at her and she was looking at a cabinet that they hadn't looked at before. Staring at them through the glass was a part of a gun.

* * *

The next morning, the both of them woke up around the same time to see Ryan looking at them. Almost immediately, Phil stood up, pulling Jasmine along with him and used his body to shield her.

"No… Please don't be alarmed… No one knows you are here except me…" Ryan said  
"Why should we believe you?" Phil asked

Ryan looked and pointed at the cameras, "Because I re-programmed the cameras here in this room. We can move freely because all the security personnels can see is an empty room."

"Why are you helping us? I thought you were afraid of your brother." Phil said  
"I was… But… After seeing what happened to Jas' parents… I rather die with no regrets." Ryan said

Jasmine lightly pushed Phil's body aside and looked at Ryan, "What's wrong with my parents?"

Ryan looked at Jasmine before looking down guiltily, "They… They changed."

She immediately held Phil's hands and squeezed it. She knew it was bound to happen but she didn't expect it to be that fast. Phil gave her hand a reassuring squeeze, knowing that it would stop Jasmine from dwelling further into the cause of it.

"What are you doing here anyway? And how did you find us?" Phil asked  
"When I heard Donald with the others, I knew that you won't have enough time to run. So, this would be the first place you'd hide." Ryan replied  
"But that still doesn't answer my first question. What are you doing here?" Phil said

Ryan takes out a small tablet from a satchel he was carrying and passed it to Jasmine.

"What is this?" Jasmine asked  
"It has all the information you need." Ryan replied

He powers up the small tablet and said, "There is a map of the entire building inside and I've circled several spots on it that might be useful to you. Especially the armoury."

"Ryan… If Nicholas finds out, you're going to get in trouble…" Jasmine said  
"Then so be it. My brother has done a lot of bad things in his life and this is one of them. I don't want to have to carry the burden of his dark secret for the rest of my life without doing anything to prevent it." Ryan said

He walked across the room with Phil and Jasmine following him. He stopped right outside of Anthony's cell and pointed at a shelf by the corner.

"That's a fake shelf. The book on the left is a trigger. Pull it and you'll open the hidden entrance. Just follow the route and you'll find yourself at an exit to the next floor where the armoury is." Ryan said

Jasmine turned to Ryan and smiled gratefully, "Thank you."

Ryan smiled back just as Jasmine hugged him. She squeezed him a little tightly and he reciprocated.

"I'm sorry, Jas. For everything but thank you for giving me a chance to make things right." Ryan said

Just as Jasmine let go to look at Ryan's expression to understand what he meant, he roughly pushed her towards Phil and hit the button by the side of Anthony's cell door. Before Jasmine could react to what was going on, Ryan gave both of them a sad but grateful smile as the cell door closed.

Jasmine turned to bury her face in Phil's chest as blood splattered on the partition window. Despite not hearing any screams, Jasmine could only imagine what was going on inside. As her body shook from crying, Phil hugged her tighter, with his eyes closed as he couldn't bring himself to look at the window which was slowly being painted red.


	22. The Fun Begins

They made hid through the fake bookshelf just as the door to the lab opened. The last thing they both heard was the sound of Donald's voice.

Phil looked at Jasmine, who was leaning against the wall behind her, the thoughts of Ryan's last moments replaying in her mind. Seeing the blank look on her face worried Phil.

"Jas? We can't stay here for too long. We have to move to the armoury." Phil said

She looked at Phil before closing her eyes. She took in a deep breath before letting it out.

"Let's go." Jasmine said

* * *

The two of them arrived at the armoury with the aid of the map inside the tablet that Ryan had given to them. With the code that Ryan had included in the map, they unlocked the door to the armoury and slid in.

As the door closed behind them, the lights activated and lit up the whole room. What the two of them saw was like a haven for every survivor. An array of weapons lined the room. Guns, crossbows, axes, hammers… Any weapon known to man were displayed right before their eyes.

"That fucking asshole has the entire military arsenal in here." Phil said  
"With a self-created epidemic, Nicholas has to keep his sanctuary safe." Jasmine said  
"Well, it's time he loses a few of these precious babies." Phil said

The two of them headed to the left and right of the room respectively as they picked out a weapon that they could use. Phil picked out several guns and a pick axe while Jasmine picked up a cross-bow and a bow and arrow set along with 2 knives. The two of them hid it appropriately with the gear that was available in the armoury before trying to figure out how to leave.

Jasmine placed the tablet on the table and opened up the map that was inside.

"If we leave by this way, we can get to the next level and work our way from there." Phil said  
"But we don't know where he is." Jasmine said  
"Then we just have to fight out way to him." Phil said

Jasmine looked at Phil and seeing the determination in his eyes, restored her confidence in this battle that she had to go through. For once, it became clear to her that she can no longer mourn over the loss of her parents or her friends.

She nodded at Phil and he gave her a small smile before putting the tablet back into the backpack he had gotten from the armoury's gear shelf. As they readied to head out, they were stopped by what they heard.

"Well, well, well. If you two aren't the vigilantes of the century!"

Jasmine gritted her teeth as she said, "Nicholas."

"Honestly speaking, I have no idea where the two of you are. But that doesn't matter. You two lovebirds can continue hiding while I prepare the test for my next project."

The two of them stood still as they imagined the smile that Nicholas had on his face as he spoke.

"Take a look at my test subjects!"

As he said that, the once black screens in the armoury suddenly lit up. Standing in the center of the screen were 4 figures. Phil and Jasmine crossed the room to one of the screens. Upon a closer look, the two of them realized that those 4 figures were none other than Big Show, AJ, Bryan and Jasmine's younger brother, Bradley.

"That bastard!" Jasmine hissed, tightening her grip on the cross bow she was holding.

Phil frowned and looking at the speaker, he realized that there was a lighted red button on it. Thinking that it is somehow a two way speaker, Phil tugged Jasmine's hand and pointed at the speaker. As if knowing what Phil was thinking, Jasmine kept quiet despite her rising panic for her brother's safety.

"Recognize them? I'm sure you do since your precious little brother is in the mix."

Jasmine clenched her fist tightly, anger and worry fuelling within her.

"Look, I'm not much of an asshole. In fact, I'll make it easier for you. If the two of you don't give yourselves up within the next 24 hours, they'll join your parents. But, if you give yourselves up, they'll be spared."

Jasmine looked at her little brother's face and was about to speak when Phil stopped her. He shook his head lightly.

"Remember. 24 hours."

With that said, the light on the speaker turned off.

"We have to find them." Jasmine said  
"And we will. He gave us more than enough time to do so." Phil said

He looked at Jasmine, "Think, Jas. You've been here before. Is there a place that he would never let you go to?"

Jasmine closed her eyes to try to remember if that ever happened before. But her rising panic was getting to her and she couldn't concentrate.

"I can't remember." Jasmine said  
"Focus, Jas." Phil said

Jasmine closed her eyes again and focused on a part of her memory regarding the building.

She opened her eyes, "I remember! There was this area of the lift that needed a swipe card to access. I asked him about it before but he never told me what it was."

"Then that's where we need to go." Phil said  
"But we still need a swipe card." Jasmine said

Phil grinned, "And we're gonna get one."


	23. New Allies

The two left the armoury with the weapons they just nicked. They weren't sure if they should have gone via the front entrance or the way they came in. But, since their primary goal was to get a swipe card, they had to risk it and go by the front entrance.

Phil stood before Jasmine as he stepped out to look.

The corridors were empty which felt a little unsettling. Phil looked left and right just as Jasmine joined him by his side.

"It looks pretty clear." Phil said  
"Yeah… But in here, it doesn't bode well." Jasmine said

Phil nodded and walked out first, with Jasmine following after him. Phil had his shotgun in front of him while Jasmine had her crossbow, armed and ready.

They walked slowly through the corridors and as they approached the intersection of the corridor, they saw a light come from one of the rooms. The two of them exchanged a look before walking closer to the room. They just about arrived at the entrance when someone yelled out behind them.

"THERE THEY ARE!"

Phil and Jasmine both turned around to see two of Nicholas' men with their rifles aimed at them. But before they had a chance, Phil and Jasmine fired each of their weapons. Each time they tried to come closer, the two would aim and shoot. But, pretty soon, both of them found themselves surrounded, front and back.

"I'm low on arrows." Jasmine said to Phil.

They stood back to back as they realized that no matter how many times they hit one of Nicholas' men, it will always look as if none had been killed.

"That doesn't matter. I still have ammo." Phil said, "I'm your hope, remember?"

Jasmine smiled and turned back to face Nicholas' men with new found confidence. She was going to fight her way out of this or die trying. Taking Phil's cue, they resumed their fight. Just as Jasmine was about to fire her arrow, a small canister slid before her and started spewing smoke. In a few seconds, she felt her eyes sting and closed her eyes trying to keep the smoke from irritating her eyes.

"Phil!" Jasmine said

He stopped firing just as another canister slid on the ground before him. Knowing what it was, he turned before the smoke could get to him. He turned just in time to catch Jasmine as a bullet from one of the guns that were still firing in the smoke hit her shoulder. She dropped her crossbow as it slid back to her side; thanks to the strap that was attached to it. Jasmine clutched her injured shoulder and stood upright again with Phil's help. The two of them were thinking of a way to get out when they both felt a piece of cloth cover their noses and mouths. They tried to fight inhaling the chemical but the cloth was held so tightly to their faces that they didn't have a chance. In a few seconds, they both felt their bodies give in.

* * *

Phil woke up with a start and tried to move upon remembering details from before.

"Whoa, whoa. Easy there."

He looked up, slowly adjusting to the light overhead as he blinked once then twice.

"You better drink this."

Phil looked at the black guy with thin dreadlocks that were tied into a ponytail before looking at the bottle of water he was holding.

"No." He said, "Where's Jasmine?"

"She's getting patched up." He said, "You should drink this. You'll need it to clear your system."

"I'm not drinking anything until I see her." Phil said

The guy held up his hand, "Alright, alright… I'll take you to her but let me introduce myself first. I'm Kofi."

"Phil."

"Nice to meet you, Phil. I must say, the two of you were putting up a pretty good fight back there." Kofi said  
"We try." Phil said sarcastically

Kofi sat back into his chair opposite the sofa Phil was sitting in.

"I get the sarcasm." Kofi said, "But if it wasn't for us, you guys would have been toast."

"At least we would have died trying." Phil said

Just as Kofi was about to say something else, a rather big guy walked in.

"She's awake." He said

Kofi looked back at Phil and gestured for him to follow after the big guy. Phil immediately got off the sofa and walked into the next room.

As soon as he saw Jasmine, he hurried over to her side.

"Are you okay?" He asked

"I'm good. Can't die from a shoulder injury." Jasmine replied, "Celeste here patched me up pretty well."

Phil looked at the girl with blond and black, two-toned hair and gave a polite nod.

"You would have died from other injuries if we didn't step in." Kofi said  
"Or worse." Celeste said

Jasmine looked at them, "Thanks. How did you know we were in there anyway?"

"It was all Glenn's idea." Celeste said

Just then, a tall, rather huge build guy came in.

Jasmine looked at the guy with a surprised look, "Uncle Glenn?"

Glenn grinned, "Hey kiddo."

A flood of emotions washed over her and as Glenn came up to give her a hug, she felt tears running down her face as she hugged him tight. After a while, she let him go.

"I-I thought you died. Mom and dad said you died while on a mission." Jasmine said  
"Yeah. My death was faked. The Nemeths were onto us so we had to throw them off." Glenn said  
"By staging your own death? We all saw how bad that explosion was." Jasmine said  
"That was pre-planned. We all survived." Glenn said

Jasmine looked at the other 3 before looking back at Glenn, "They're all from your team?"

Glenn nodded, "The best of the best."

"I thought it would be a bigger team." Jasmine said  
"Don't underestimate us. Ryan makes up two team members." Kofi said, pointing in the huge guy who was standing by the side.

Glenn looked at Jasmine, "I couldn't say the same for you though… You were in a coma… What happened?"

"I woke up. Turns out Nicholas had been drugging me this whole time." Jasmine said  
"I knew that son of a bitch was up to no good. I told your parents he couldn't be trusted." Glenn said

Upon hearing the word 'parents', Jasmine flinched a little as she remembered the last time she saw them.

Glenn put a hand on her shoulder, "I'm sorry, Jas. I know it was hard seeing them turn into people you no longer recognise."

Jasmine looked at him, "How did you-"

"We've been keeping tabs on the Nemeth building. Trying to locate the son of a bitch." Kofi said  
"So that's how you knew we were in there." Phil said

Kofi nodded just as Celeste booted up a laptop on the table.

"We've installed a couple of cams in the building to see if Nicholas might appear somewhere." Celeste said, "But so far, he hasn't appeared."

"He'll come out eventually." Phil said  
"But we need to rescue Bradley and the others before he does." Jasmine said

She looked at Celeste, "Do you know where my little brother is being held?"

Celeste looked at Glenn, unsure if she should go ahead and answer Jasmine's question. Glenn nodded and Celeste typed a few things onto the laptop as the screen switched to a scene that Jasmine has seen before.

Her little brother sat there, hugging his knees to his chest while Bryan looked like he was giving him a pep talk.

"They are currently being held in the underground level of the building." Celeste said, "We've been watching them since they were put in and so far, nothing's happened to any of them."

"We need to go rescue them." Jasmine said  
"And we will. But you are going to stay here." Glenn said

Jasmine shook her head, "No way. I promised Bradley I'll keep him safe. There's no way I'm just going to stay here."

"But you're injured, Jas. Your shoulder isn't healed a 100%." Celeste said  
"It would be dangerous for you." Kofi said

Jasmine gritted her teeth, "I. Don't. Give. A. Crap. I'm going to save my little brother even if I have to lose an arm."

"Aren't you her boyfriend? Why aren't you trying to stop her?" Kofi asked  
"Because I've tried that before. And it didn't work so well. Besides, if she goes in, I'm going in with her. So, I'll be there to protect her." Phil replied

The guys looked at Glenn, who wasn't sure if he was willing to let his niece risk her life. But seeing the determination in her eyes, he knew he couldn't stop her even if he tied her to a chair.

He sighed, "Alright."

Jasmine smiled gratefully at her uncle.

"We don't have much time. Getting to the underground level is going to be tricky." Glenn said, "Knowing Nicholas, by this time, he probably knows we're onto him and he's going to be prepared."

He looked at everyone, "Get your weapons ready and prepare to give him hell."


End file.
